In How many states is Jury Nullification legal ?

Question

In your state is the Judge required to inform the Jury that they have the power to acquit the defendent based on Jury Nullification?

If you are unaware of what Jury Nullification why not wirte your State Congressman and ask him/her..

Following that, you could write him/her a second letter telling him/her of your opinion on Jury Nullification.

Answer 1

It's legal in all 50 states. Nullification is a great short-term tool for juries to use against the excesses of a paranoid government gone authoritarian.

Answer 2

This depends upon what you mean by "legal"? Could a juror be punished in any way for voting "not guilty" based upon his view that the law is unfair? No. Is it improper for a judge to tell the jury they should not do that? No. Do some juries do it even after being told not to? I am sure they do. Should the law specifically allow it? Maybe, though I fear the other side of the coin: we don't think the defendant did it, but we're going to convict him anyway because we think he should go to jail.

I do note that whatever the "common law" may be, any law can be changed by the legislature. Although the odds of getting a legislature to pass a law either permitting jury nullification, or forbidding a judge to instruct a jury not to do it, are extremely low, the odds would be a lot better in a state legislature than in congress. If this is something you feel strongly about, I would suggest writing your state legislators, not your congress member.

Answer 3

Jury "nullification" is not a legal doctrine. It is an illegal practice wherein a jury simply chooses not to do its legal duty to return a verdict based on the facts and the law. Nevertheless, juries have historically sometimes used their power to do so for sentimental or political reasons; not only to acquit the guilty, but also to convict the innocent.

Answer 4

The judge can't inform the jury of the possibility of jury nullification in any state. However, the judge can't change the jury's verdict should they acquit based on nullification.

Writing your congressperson will not do anything to change this. It's not an actual statute. It's called common law.

Answer 5

Jury nullification is legal. It is the acquitting of a defendant by a jury in disregard of the judge's instructions and contrary to the jury's findings of fact. Jury nullification occurs where a jury, apparently ignoring the letter of the law and the instructions by the court, and taking into account all of the evidence presented, renders a verdict in contradiction to the law. Although a jury's refusal relates only to the particular case before it, juries are reluctant to pass a verdict contrary to law. Jury nullification may signal an unwillingness by the members of the jury to accept the law and may have far reaching implications. In a case of jury nullification, the jury sometimes bases its verdict on the jury members' view about the validity of the law itself, a consequence of providing a right to trial by one's peers. Jury nullification is a de facto power of the jury, and is not ordinarily described as a right. The power of jury nullification derives from an inherent quality of most modern common law systems—a general unwillingness to inquire into jurors' motivations during or after deliberations. A jury's ability to nullify the law is further supported by two common law precedents: the prohibition on punishing jury members for their verdict, and the prohibition on retrying criminal defendants after an acquittal.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/nullification.html
http://www.crfc.org/americanjury/nullification.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
http://www.friesian.com/nullif.htm

This practice is highly controversial as evident in the following ruling: http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/04/0412.html

Lastly, you can write your congressmen and senators but it will be to no avail. In the United States, this power is given by the judicial system and is validated by precedent. An attempt to pass new laws which would overturn prior precedent is difficult. The effective way to change the process is through a change in the judicial system.

Answer 6

Up till the Eighteen Eighties it grew to become into common for a prefer to teach a jury that they had the accountability to be sure the information of the case and to be sure the applicability of the regulation. this is, break free the case itself, the jury ought to study the regulation being utilized interior the case and be sure that one in each and every of those regulation grew to become into incorrect or wrongly being utilized and nullify the utility of the regulation in this one particular case through acquitting the single charged. this could be a potential of the jury which has its roots in Magna Carta (1215 CE) and it nonetheless exists. it somewhat is the final barrier of the individuals to restrain an extremely intrusive government. even however, no longer all judges and legal experts believe this jury potential. those persons desire a jury with a ideas like a sparkling slate that during basic terms they could write upon. Such isn't part of our common regulation history. nonetheless, don’t ever tell a choose which you help jury nullification, they don’t like it and could be somewhat vindictive, yet in the back of the closed doorways of the jury room you (with the aid of fact the jury) can do as you like. lots greater could be discovered on the domicile web site of the completely counseled Jury association (FIJA) on the source link.

Answer 7

in all states, Jury Nullification is legal. however some states don't force the judge to tell you about it.

Answer 8

i would say 5