Let’s Hear it for Jury Nullification!

Candice Jackson and I have long argued that jury nullification still has a role in the pursuit of justice, and that it what some of the pundits are saying in the wake of the Scrushy verdict.

But it gets even better:

A corporate law specialist who had followed the trial was stunned.

“There was a mass of evidence against him. I certainly expected the jury to convict. I thought the prosecution could get a fair hearing in Birmingham, but that appears not to be the case,” said Larry Soderquist, director of the Corporate and Securities Law Institute at Vanderbilt University.

“I believe it was because of his very high reputation in the African-American community, and the fact the jury ended up more than half African-American,” he said.

The jury was composed of seven blacks and five whites. Prominent black attorney Donald Watkins, who hugged Scrushy as the verdict was read, had reminded the jury in closing arguments of the struggles of the civil rights era in Birmingham and Alabama and how juries helped the movement succeed. Black ministers were also visible supporters of Scrushy in the courtroom throughout the trial.

“Since I can’t find a rational explanation for the verdict, I have to turn to an irrational explanation, and I fear it was such things as prominent black ministers being in the courtroom, Mr. Scrushy going to black churches after he was indicted …,” said Soderquist.

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2:12 pm on June 28, 2005