Jury Veto Power and Nullification

This is a compilation based on my tweets from the other night. I figured it would be good to put them all in one place for a smoother read.

There is one thing that everyone should know if they want to affect the government right now. Jury Veto Power. Jurors are the final stand the people have against stupid, oppressive and unjust laws. Judges no longer inform juries of these rights and powers. They only give specific instructions telling the jury exactly what they are to do and exactly what they are to base their decision on. The right of a juror to nullify, and the power of juries to veto, is being denied defendants the nation over. A defendant has the right to an informed jury not one that is instructed. Instructed juries are forced to make a decision even if it's against the individual juror's principles. Hardly anyone knows about jury nullification. It is a well kept secret in the court systems.

A jury has the right to come back with a verdict contrary to their instructions from the judge. This is the Jury Veto Power. Juries can rule on law as well as fact. If you find a law to be unjust, and you can get the rest of the jury to understand and see it your way, you can come back with the appropriate ruling. The jury can even change charges and sentencing. If you cannot get the jury to understand your reasoning you can hang the jury so that you are not delivering a decision the compromises your principles. Jurors cannot be retaliated against or their reasoning questioned when they make their decisions. This is what makes nullification possible.

Jurors are excluded from jury duty when it is found that they know their rights as a juror. There are few people that know their rights as jurors and so are not missed by the courts when excluded while making up a jury. If enough people knew their rights going into jury pools, excluding jurors would be much harder. And, if everyone knew their rights going in, exclusion could be impossible. Juries would then truly be the final word on law, as they were intended to be by the founding fathers of this nation. What is passed in Congress would be irrelevant if juries did not convict. The Fugitive Slave Act and Prohibition are examples of bad laws where jurors were not delivering convictions and why judges no longer properly instruct juries.

If you are on a jury, the measure of a just law, and whether a crime was committed, is whether or not there was a victim. A crime is committed when a person or their property is harmed. If there is no victim, there is no crime. Every Crime Needs a Victim. Business licenses, vehicle registrations and parking meters are just a few examples of things and laws that, if broken, do not warrant laws or criminal prosecution. While these are not crimes that would get you a trial by jury they are good examples of what I am talking about. Of course, I do not condone hanging juries where the crime and victims are real and the evidence supports the charges against the defendant.

For more information on Jury Veto Power and Jury Nullification, read some of the following sources on this topic.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Jury+veto
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Jury+veto
http://www.greenmac.com/eagle/ISSUES/ISSUE23-9/07JuryNullification.html
http://floridajail4judges.org/documents/Jury.Veto.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification