Comments on: Jury Nullification

By: Teh best EVR comment on Jury Nullification at Standard Mischief

Teh best EVR comment on Jury Nullification at Standard Mischief — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:02:21 +0000

[...] That would be this one, said over at Say Uncle’s, back in July 2005: # Mark Jones Says: Link to this comment [...]

By: Manish

Manish — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:30:15 +0000

I agree with Mark Jones…prosecutors and the police have all this discretion, why shouldn’t a jury? If two people commit a crime and a prosecutor decides to cut a deal with one of them to get the other, why shouldn’t juries be able to second guess the prosecutor?

However, I would limit jury nullification to criminal cases.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 19:54:44 +0000

Apparently, California lawyers don’t like it.

Do lawyers from any state like it? Come to think of it, does anyone who’s made it through at least one year of law school without flunking out like it? That’s about the point where I flipped on the issue IIRC.

By: Kristopher

Kristopher — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:45:03 +0000

Prosecutors have already tried to punish a juror in WA for not volunteering info during Voir Dire.

It got chucked out on appeal … it seems they didn’t mirandize the jury or offer to provide lawyers during this questioning.

By: Mark Jones

Mark Jones — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 16:06:07 +0000

Heh. Yeah, the cops has discretion aplenty on whether to arrest or merely warn you. The Prosecutor’s office has discretion aplenty on whether to charge you for a crime or crimes (and what charges to bring, and what penalties to ask for). The judge is a tinpot god in his own courtroom.

But if the JURORS show the slightest bit of independent thought, civilization will collapse into flaming ruin.

I’m…skeptical.