[65470] in Cypherpunks
Re: Jury Nullification = Voting One's Conscience
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James A. Donald)
Sat Sep 14 23:40:36 1996
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 1996 07:46:13 -0700
To: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May), cypherpunks@toad.com
From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
At 07:24 PM 9/11/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
> And I don't think there has _ever_ been a case of a juror prosecuted/jailed
> for voting his or her conscience, regardless of jury instructions.
Where have you been for the last twenty years?
In fact a juror was recently jailed for this. She had informed the other
juries of the likely severity of the punishment for pot, and refused
to vote for conviction.
She was charged with perjury and various contrived and bogus charges.
The basis of perjury charge was that she had sworn there was no reason
she could not do justice, and, according to the court, she was not
doing justice because of her opposition to the drug laws..
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