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 Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
 
Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 26,729
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 1 hour, 39 minutes
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 Jury nullification  1
#13901315 - 02/03/11 08:53 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Has anyone ever taken part in or known someone who has taken part in jury nullification? I first heard about the concept on The Shroomery a while back. I think it was Pris who brought it up. Basically, if someone is on trial for say, drugs, and you're on the jury, you can vote him not guilty no matter how much evidence is presented. I believe the person would go free. I remember there being some debate over that. I just read an article about it and I thought I'd ask you guys the question.
Quote:
Say no to drug prosecution
End the war on drugs with civil disobedience
Gavin Mathis
The Daily Evergreen
Published: 02/03/2011
No one enjoys jury duty. Sitting for hours as lawyers poke and pry at your beliefs is about as exciting as waiting in line at the DMV. Jury duty is one of those civic responsibilities touted by high school government teachers that get ignored later in life — except for a jury in Missoula, Mont.
When a pool of prospective jurors were asked by Deputy Missoula County Attorney Andrew Paul if they would convict a man of marijuana possession, one after another expressed their discontent with the state’s possession laws. After taking a quick poll, District Judge Dusty Deschamps realized he might not be able to sit a jury.
During a recess, prosecutors cut a deal with the defense. The defendant, Touray Cornell, entered an Alford plea in which he did not have to admit guilt but was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 19 years suspended. If he had not also been accused of distributing marijuana – which, unlike possession, is a felony – Cornell could have very easily walked out of the courtroom a free man.
Unless the potential jurors were pulling a stunt to get out of jury duty, their mutinous actions constitute one of the most original acts of political dissent in the war on drugs. Such feats of jury nullification are rare, but should be considered a legitimate means of ending prohibition laws that flood courtrooms with first-time offenders, devour state and federal funds and do nothing to rid the nation of a relatively harmless drug. More than half of the arrests for drug abuse violations are for marijuana, according to the 2010 FBI Uniform Crime Report..
Jury nullification has played a prominent role in American history. In 1735, New York Weekly Journal publisher John Peter Zenger was found not guilty of seditious libel when a jury disobeyed direct orders from a British judge. And in the years leading up to the Civil War, Northern juries prevented slaves from being returned to their owners by not recognizing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
America is a nation of laws, and citizens need to abide by those statutes for the rule of law to have any meaning. However, once a law becomes so corrosive to society, people of conscience must exercise their own moral judgment. Sometimes jurors have to match the defendants’ disobedience of the law with their own disobedience to serve as a corrective in legal proceedings.
Even as thousands of the nation’s most disadvantaged citizens are sentenced for violating marijuana possession laws, politicians continue the same failed policies by declaring a war on drugs. Sweeping reductions in civil rights, such as the right to privacy and due process, are deemed acceptable if they help win this fictitious conflict. For example, decisions handed down by the Supreme Court sanctioned the use of anonymous informants (Illinois v. Gates, 1983) and increased the federal government’s ability to regulate the use of medicinal marijuana (Gonzales v. Raich, 2005).
“There is no other criminal law on the books that is enforced so harshly and pervasively that almost half of Americans don’t think should be a crime in the first place. That’s why (jury nullification) happens,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, in an interview with the New York Times.
The nation’s prohibition of marijuana serves so little purpose to winning the war on drugs, jurors should engage in jury nullification to prevent another citizen from being sentenced for merely possessing a couple buds. Of course, most marijuana possession cases end in plea agreements, as seen in the Missoula case, but in the unlikely chance you are asked to serve on a jury deliberating violations of marijuana possession laws, you should vote to acquit, no matter how much evidence is presented.
As a juror, you should use your power to choose justice over man-made laws. The disobedience of conscientious citizens who make this choice will change the nation’s drug laws if legislators do not.
(http://www.dailyevergreen.com)
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Mp3 of the month: The Human Expression - Readin' Your Will
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realfuzzhead
Registered: 03/04/10
Posts: 10,721
Loc: above the smog layer 
Last seen: 1 day, 14 hours
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 Re: Jury nullification [Re: Learyfan]
#13901343 - 02/03/11 08:59 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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craziest shit how they ruled they dont have to tll jurors about their right to judge a person not only on weather they commited a crime, but weather or no the crime is justifiable.
"jur nullificatn is the last deense against a tyrranous government"
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geokills
∙∙∙∙☼ º¿° ☼∙∙∙∙
Registered: 05/08/01
Posts: 17,709
Loc: city of angels
Last seen: 5 days, 2 hours
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 Re: Jury nullification [Re: Learyfan] 1
#13901377 - 02/03/11 09:06 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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I was on a jury that almost couldn't decide a unanimous verdict on one of three counts in a criminal case (specifically: the count for hate crime). However we ultimately did convince those last couple of people that they weren't being reasonable, and were in fact letting their personal opinions affect their decision on the case. Ultimately, I suppose that's what you're asking to be done with respect to drug crimes. I must admit, it would have to be a fairly innocuous crime (no violence or theft involved) for me to make such a stand against my fellow jurors when the evidence is clear.
Nevertheless, a hung jury does not result in a verdict of innocence for the defendant. It only results in a mistrial for that one trial. The prosecutor can still bring the case to court again with the same charges, although he or she may think twice about doing so if the case isn't in the bag, since it's a lot of extra time and resources to restart a trial from square one.
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┼ ··∙ long live the shroomery ∙·· ┼
...╬π╥  ╥π╬...
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 Chespirito
Stranger
Registered: 02/13/09
Posts: 3,258
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Re: Jury nullification [Re: Learyfan] 1
#13901393 - 02/03/11 09:09 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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gamer4life
Natures Child
Registered: 05/29/10
Posts: 753
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Re: Jury nullification [Re: geokills]
#13901402 - 02/03/11 09:11 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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If I were to be on any jury for any non-violent drug crime I would demand jruy mullification. I wished more people would practice it. The we could prove to the government that laws need to change
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Legalize!
Stop putting our children in prisons.
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!
Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 168,365
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: Jury nullification [Re: Learyfan] 1
#13901694 - 02/03/11 10:03 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Learyfan said:
Has anyone ever taken part in or known someone who has taken part in jury nullification?
in a drug trial regarding possession and distribution I'd have no problem
bringing the law into question but some states do not wish to recognize jury
nullification while others have it included into their constitution, each
person should look into what is within their own state laws regarding it,
Georgia for instance within our constitution it states that we are the jury
for both the facts and the law so what's handed down by a jury does in fact
exonerate the defendant and could change the laws concerning the charges if
there are several cases that are nullified
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there are 923 words in the english language that do not follow the "I before E"
rule, there are 44 words in the english language that follow the rule. this is
the shit our education funding is paying for and these liberals want more money
for education to keep making students stupid
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 26,729
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 1 hour, 39 minutes
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Re: Jury nullification [Re: geokills]
#13901723 - 02/03/11 10:08 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Interesting, Geo. So would you do it? Do you think we should start really promoting jury nullification here at The Shroomery for drug cases? Especially non-violent cases for drugs such as marijuana, shrooms, LSD, MDMA etc.? I have a feeling that most cases wouldn't be retried, right? Maybe we should be on the front line here and encourage everyone to do this. Maybe we could help set our brothers free, one by one.
Chespirito, thanks. I'll check it out.
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Mp3 of the month: The Human Expression - Readin' Your Will
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!
Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 168,365
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: Jury nullification [Re: gamer4life] 1
#13901812 - 02/03/11 10:22 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
gamer4life said:
If I were to be on any jury for any non-violent drug crime I would demand jruy mullification. I wished more people would practice it. The we could prove to the government that laws need to change
you cant demand jury nullification, you can simply educate yourself and try
and sway the other jurors to see that victimless 'crimes' such as drug
possession/use are government stepping on their freedom, that it's just
another of the many rights slowly being eroded away by unjust laws, that
their government has overstepped it's bounds in telling individuals what they
may not consume
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there are 923 words in the english language that do not follow the "I before E"
rule, there are 44 words in the english language that follow the rule. this is
the shit our education funding is paying for and these liberals want more money
for education to keep making students stupid
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 26,729
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 1 hour, 39 minutes
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Quote:
Prisoner#1 said:
you cant demand jury nullification, you can simply educate yourself and try
and sway the other jurors to see that victimless 'crimes' such as drug
possession/use are government stepping on their freedom, that it's just
another of the many rights slowly being eroded away by unjust laws, that
their government has overstepped it's bounds in telling individuals what they
may not consume
Have you done this or known anyone who has done this, Pris? Do you think it's best to try and educate the other jurors or to just refuse to explain your reasons to them? I know this probably a stupid question, but the other jurors can't narc you out and get you thrown off the jury if you tell them what you're up to, can they?
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Mp3 of the month: The Human Expression - Readin' Your Will
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gamer4life
Natures Child
Registered: 05/29/10
Posts: 753
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Re: Jury nullification [Re: Prisoner#1] 1
#13902170 - 02/03/11 11:31 PM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Prisoner#1 said:
Quote:
gamer4life said:
If I were to be on any jury for any non-violent drug crime I would demand jury nullification. I wished more people would practice it. The we could prove to the government that laws need to change
you cant demand jury nullification, you can simply educate yourself and try
and sway the other jurors to see that victimless 'crimes' such as drug
possession/use are government stepping on their freedom, that it's just
another of the many rights slowly being eroded away by unjust laws, that
their government has overstepped it's bounds in telling individuals what they
may not consume
Yea, I just read more about it after my lame post. Thanks prisoner for clearing that up. This drug abuse class that I'm in. 90% of the 68 people in my online class believe drug crimes are unjust. Not to mention there is 4 cops and a few other people in this class going for criminal justice. They all believe the drug laws are unfair, and believe it or not our text kind of shows us that. So I think the new text book for this class is more in favor for reform in our drug laws. It points out all the bad things of the drug war and I have yet to find anything good it says about the drug war.
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Legalize!
Stop putting our children in prisons.
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!
Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 168,365
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: Jury nullification [Re: Learyfan] 1
#13902461 - 02/04/11 12:43 AM (2 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Learyfan said:
Have you done this or known anyone who has done this, Pris? Do you think it's best to try and educate the other jurors or to just refuse to explain your reasons to them?
I've been called to jury duty twice, never for a drug case, always a sex
crime and frankly I support the death penalty of that shit but some stupid
human rights crap prevents me from passing a sentence and leave it to the
judge... stupid lawyers
after you hear the case you're asked to weigh the evidence and deliberate
on a verdict, at that point you are sequestered with the other jurors,
then is when you explain your position, use compelling arguments about the
unjustness of the law, that it's malum prohibitum, illegal because they
just decided to make it so, most on a jury will agree the laws are unjust
but most also only know of the 2 common outcomes
Quote:
I know this probably a stupid question, but the other jurors can't narc you out and get you thrown off the jury if you tell them what you're up to, can they?
if it were outside of the courtroom then they could try and accuse you of
jury tampering but you're still in the court if you're in deliberation, to
my knowledge there's nothing they can do to remove you as long as you're
not posing a disruption to court proceedings
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there are 923 words in the english language that do not follow the "I before E"
rule, there are 44 words in the english language that follow the rule. this is
the shit our education funding is paying for and these liberals want more money
for education to keep making students stupid
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bbl337
genetic material is Ar based
Registered: 02/12/09
Posts: 7,008
Last seen: 1 day, 19 hours
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Quote:
gamer4life said:
If I were to be on any jury for any non-violent drug crime I would demand jruy mullification. I wished more people would practice it. The we could prove to the government that laws need to change
they get new jurors if you inform them of their rights, no joke. It's fucked up
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