State prosecutors in Washington are having panic attacks because a small billboard in the Judiciary Square Metro states the truth. There was an article in the Washington Post recently about this billboard and that truth it advocates.
“Good jurors nullify bad laws” and “You have the right to ‘hang’ the jury with your vote if you cannot agree with other jurors.”
The billboard just recently was installed and strategically placed along the route to the D.C. Superior Court. State prosecutors are up in arms about this, and are asking judges to screen all prospective jurors and weed out any who have “either seen or been influenced by the billboard.” I am proud to say that Kirsten Tynan, a fellow Montanan of the Montana based Fully Informed Jury Association has contact information on the billboard.
Juror nullification demands that each juror decide the validity of laws, and also decide if punishment is too harsh. Jurors should be interested in facts, but they should also be the interpreters of the law. That concept is nearly completely foreign to modern juries, as judges and prosecutors go to great lengths to instruct and control all that jurors think and do. According to The Free Dictionary:
“A sanctioned doctrine of trial proceedings wherein members of a jury disregard either the evidence presented or the instructions of the judge in order to reach a verdict based upon their own consciences. It espouses the concept that jurors should be the judges of both law and fact.”
In other words, jurors should not only determine the validity of the state’s laws, but should ignore any jury instructions delivered that contradict their own consciences.
Most all who are incarcerated in horrible U.S. corporate, state and federal prisons, prison systems that are mostly fascist by nature, have been found guilty of victimless crimes or non-crimes, by uninformed juries. The U.S. has the highest prison population per capita of all other countries on earth, and most of those held captive have never harmed any other person or their property. The prison system you see, is very big business, in fact it is a multi-billion dollar business for profit. That is why prosecutors in many areas are rewarded for convictions, while bad law, corruption and outright conspiracy throughout the court system is rampant.
My conclusions are based on the fact that I believe in the natural rights of the individual, and that men are free to do as they choose to so long as they harm no others or their property, and do not infringe on any other’s rights.
If I adhere to these solid convictions, I am bound to never convict another of any so-called crime as defined by the state that contradicts my core beliefs. I cannot with clear conscience help to send someone away to be caged as an animal if he or she has not harmed another or their property.
Therefore, I would acquit any charged with any criminal offense that met the above criteria. This would virtually eliminate most any crimes based upon legislating morality unless their was a victim actually harmed. All drug laws then would be rendered moot. Actually most all laws could be properly ignored if proper nullification were considered.
The implementation of jury nullification in and of itself would go a long way in destroying much of the State’s power. Without the use of corrupt courts to control normal human action by the citizenry, the state would become impotent due to its inability to fully control non-violent behavior. The prisons would empty out, and only those who harmed others or their property would be harshly punished for their crimes. A better world that would be without doubt!