Jury Nullification (And The Plight Of The Retired Chemistry Professor)

[JakeStratham]

A lot of you are familiar with the concept of jury nullification. Briefly, it is the right of a jury to acquit defendants, even if they have technically broken the law. There is a rich history behind nullification, and any person who serves on a jury should be aware they have this right (despite what judges claim). It is exercised in minor ways that receive very little media coverage (for example, here).

Recent news demonstrating the move to eliminate this right:

A 79-year-old retired chemistry professor has on many occasions stood outside the U.S. courthouse in Manhattan. There, he would hand out brochures to passersby that explained their right of nullification. He may not look like Superman, but to me, he is a bit of a hero.

Last year, federal prosecutors indicted him for jury tampering. If convicted, he faces several months in prison... for handing out brochures about jury nullification. He has asked for a jury trial.

Adding a note that borders on satire, fed prosecutor Rebecca Mermelstein opposed the request. Her reason? The professor's position on nullification. She feels he would encourage the jury to acquit him.

Here's the NYT piece (login required):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/n...llification-case-against-julian-heicklen.html

Here's coverage by William Anderson:

William L. Anderson: Yes, the feds have created a tyrannical prosecutorial state

In the event you're interested in digging more deeply into nullification, here's an interesting piece:

The Rise And Fall Of Jury Nullfiication by James Ostrowski (PDF, 27 pages)

 

[.Hack]

I saw Jury and Chemistry Teacher and thought of Breaking Bad. Nothing can be explained

 

[lukep]

If he gets convicted then the 3rd branch of the US government will be just as evil and corrupted as the first two clearly are.

...Nevermind that suddenly such a ruling will make illegal all information worldwide that states US Jurors have the right to Nullify against a judge's orders... Even in wikipedia, it will have to be removed! Sounds a bit like a Fahrenheit 451 situation then...

Next up: Removal of the 1st amendment altogether. We the Stupid american people won't notice...

 

[dtea206]

Last year, federal prosecutors indicted him for jury tampering. If convicted, he faces several months in prison... for handing out brochures about jury nullification. He has asked for a jury trial. The federal prosecutor Rebecca Mermelstein opposed the request. Her reason? The professor's position on nullification. She feels he would encourage the jury to acquit him.

That is fucking priceless!

 

[music4mic]

Next up: Removal of the 1st amendment altogether. We the Stupid american people won't notice...

They're working really hard on this right now. The new defense authorization bill that flew through the senate is going to make this much easier too.
Americans won't notice until they or someone they love is [secretly] jailed [without charge] for this.

 

[Hav3n]

Ok bit of a rant here... this was something that popped into my head the other day and i fucking performed inception on myself cause every time i see threads like this i think about this.



There are actually smart people in government (and that is scary).

The problem is that they don't always think about what is best for the country but rather that is best for the survival of our country and our continued economic and military dominance.

Corporations, Intelligence agencies, and anyone who actually has long term survival goals would be in this group. Basically anyone without a term limit.

So suppose you're in one of these government think-tanks and you're tasked not to think about just winning the next election but to take the 100 year view.

This type of thinking is both inline with our governments goals (keeping power and political clout) and our corporate interests (economic dominance in the face of emerging third world economies)

You've got major problems to overcome/circumvent .

1) Global warming / Climate change
2) Energy
3) Emerging 3rd world economies

Step #1 - We (the US and Europe) have created #1 (Global Warming) in achieving our economic dominance. So now... lets use #1 against #3. Regulate Global Warming to strangle economic growth.

Step #2 - Make sure you've got military presence (even better a huge military base) on every major oil reserve in the world. Make sure that YOU (the US) will be last economy to run out of 'easy' oil.

Saudi Arabia? Check
UAE? Check
Qatar? Check
Iraq? Check
Libya? Check
Venezuela? Economics and proximity dictate that they deal with us.
Iran? Surrounded on all sides
Russia? Surrounded on all sides

Step #3 - Make sure you have governmental powers in place in order to control the populace if/when the shit hits the fan (see #1 and #2). Today's governments have unparallelled access to its citizen's information. They also have better tools and methods to keep that populace in check and under control.

Privacy is dead. Buy all the information you need from corporations.. plug that into a database.

SELECT Citizen, Address FROM Registered_Voters WHERE Political_Views <> 'Acceptable'

Patriot Act? (lol)
TSA? Check (you've been cowed)
Control the media? Check (lol 24 hour 'news' networks lol)
Eroding constitutional powers? In progress (see OP)
Controlling the internet? In progress (see pending legislation)

It's so gradual that for every 100 things that get called out and prevented .......... 1 gets by ......... and those things are adding up.

/rant_off

So thank God for crazies like this guy who fight the good fight for all of us whether we think he is a loon or not. Also... thank God for the NRA and ACLU or any other advocacy group for the same reasons.

You might hate them but damnit you need them.

 

[greenleaves]

Why do you think that you are held responsible for not breaking any laws, yet no school or highschool has even a basic class on legal basics?

You get to learn biology, history, english, social studies, etc... but never law. Unless you become a lawyer you don't get to know about the laws you are held accountable for!

 

[Moxie]

I'm surprised they still allow jury nullification to exist. I'm guessing this might be because few people know about it and setting the wheels in motion to get rid of it would draw too much attention towards it.

Here's the NYT piece (login required):

Last I knew you can read 20 articles a month without logging in, and then after that all you had to do was clear cookies and history.

 

[DanWesson]

Unbelievable. They even sent an undercover agent to speak with him to build their case.

If somehow they successfully convict him, it will only make me wonder what's next. Parts of Hav3n's post mirror some thoughts I've been having as well. I hate to think about where we will be when I'm this man's age.

So thank God for crazies like this guy who fight the good fight for all of us whether we think he is a loon or not. Also... thank God for the NRA and ACLU or any other advocacy group for the same reasons.

You might hate them but damnit you need them.

So true.
<tinfoil>
One of two scenarios seem possible: Obama in his 2nd term fulfills his 2008 campaign promise to get the lobby out of Washington (just the ones his corporate/military backers need gone)
Or, the Republican winner of the 2012 election fulfills a promise originally made by Obama in his 2008 campaign to get the lobby out...
</ tinfoil>
:usa:

 

[Sharksfan]

Adding a note that borders on satire, fed prosecutor Rebecca Mermelstein opposed the request. Her reason? The professor's position on nullification. She feels he would encourage the jury to acquit him.

So she opposes his constitutional right to a trial by jury? WTF?