jury nullification

We don't know it for a fact, but we just know it's true: Rebecca Zahau did NOT commit suicide at Coronado's landmark Spreckels mansion in July 2011. That, I suspect, was the bottom line of at least nine of 12 civil-trial jurors who, for lack of any other suspect with opportunity, pinned the 32-year-old woman's ...

Jury nullification is the practical understanding that a jury's deliberations are conducted in secret, and an acquittal cannot be appealed. It is not suggested to jurors because the U.S. Supreme Court and Minnesota Supreme Court have specifically held that trial judges should not instruct a jury on this “raw ...

The mistrial ruling Thursday night by Judge David Crain came after the jury spent about 19 hours deliberating. "And I know y'all had a lot of emotions and stuff back there and sorry you had to go through that, but this is the way the system works,” said Judge Crain. It was a bitter end to a week and a half of ...

In fact, a full 59 percent said it is acceptable for juries to return a "not guilty" verdict despite the belief that the defendant is technically guilty of the violation — a concept known as jury nullification. Only 24 percent said it was not acceptable and 17 percent didn't know. The online survey of 602 Oregonians ...

That might include, for example, holding rallies or passing out literature in support of tort reform, women's rights, or drug decriminalization, depending on whether those causes were arguably related to a pending case. Thiede, in other words, may be inadvertently strengthening the case for jury nullification.

FOX 17 broke the case when Wood was initially charged with a five-year felony and misdemeanor for obstructing justice and jury tampering, after passing out informational fliers about juror rights, which discussed jury nullification, on the public sidewalk outside the Mecosta County Courthouse. His bond ...

It reminded jurors that they have the authority to engage in so-called “jury nullification“ — that is, to refuse to return a guilty verdict when doing so would be manifestly unjust, even if legal guilt was proven. In other words, Mr. Wood was engaged in speech at the very core of the First Amendment's aegis: ...

If ever a case involves victimless crime, I invoke the right of jury nullification. Even if the evidence is there to convict the accused, I would never cast a guilty verdict against someone for exercising a liberty that harms no one else. Jury conscription is becoming an annual occurrence now that I look forward to ...

In Jury Nullification, author Clay Conrad details the power of juries, and takes readers through an eye-opening history of the doctrine of jury independence, the law, and the practical and political implications of jury nullification. The Founding Fathers guaranteed trial by jury three times in the Constitution-more than any other ...

Keith Wood was arrested for handing out pamphlets outside of a Mecosta County courthouse in Big Rapids, MI. He was getting the word out about jury nullification, the notion that jurors should judge not only the defendant in a particular case but the law itself. Wood was charged with a five-year felony as ...