Re: Jury Nullification

In response to my previous blogpost, a reader writes: “If the prosecutor gets the idea that the prospective juror knows about jury nullification, that prospective juror will never be empanelled. I wasn’t picked when I was subjected to jury duty and I only suggested that I didn’t trust Police Officers to tell the truth.”

Yes. But it does not mean jury nullification is dead. It only means the citizens have to be intelligent, ejumacated, ethical, courageous, principled, and resourceful in order to exercise the right. So long as there is double jeopardy, we have jury nullification in place, to one degree or another.A couple years ago I was part of a 60-member jury panel in Houston. We were subjected to voir dire from the prosecutor and the attorney for the defendant–a grandmotherly woman being prosecuted for possession of many kilos of cocaine in the trunk of her car. Very long mandatory sentence. Of the 60 or so prospective jurors, I recall at least a dozen or so of us, during voir dire, admitting we could not vote to put this woman in jail for 30 to life even if she was proved guilty. So, we were all dismissed. I doubt any of us were using it as an excuse to get out of jury duty. I think we were all sincere.

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2:36 am on December 3, 2003