Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Jury Nullification In the News Again ( NYT Op Ed )

A always fun and controversal subject. See this New York Times Op Ed. Jurors Need to Know That They Can Say No

I am sort of conflicted on this. I think it serves as a check on power and should be maintained. However it should be used RARELY I think, and it's best if Jurors just discover that power on their own.

It also raises some problems. A good D.A. during voir dire will ,if he thinks the Jury might consider nullifying a case ,will do a lot of "will you "FOLLOW THE LAW" type questions. I am not too keen on Jurors lying as to that. Still it's has been a important check in the past but should be used rarely in order to avoid abuse I feel. Of course "rarely" considering the number of Jury trials we have each day would not be a totally small looking number to some.

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