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| Authored by: LocoYokel on Wednesday, August 29 2012 @ 08:23 PM EDT |
It's called "Jury Nullification".
AIUI many judges and prosecutors hate it and admitting that you know of it is a
good way to get kicked off a jury. I have heard anecdotes of judges
specifically telling juries that it didn't exist, but I don't have any
references to verify that with.
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Political correctness is an effort to abrogate the First
Amendment under the assumption that there exists a right to
not be offended and that it has priority[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- While True - Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 30 2012 @ 08:59 AM EDT
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 30 2012 @ 05:54 PM EDT |
Not sure about US Law, but in UK criminal law, a jury can indeed ignore the law,
but only to acquit.
In other words, a judge can find that a defendant having no case to answer and
acquit the defendant without reference to the jury, but only a jury can convict.
The judge cannot compel a jury to convict a defendant.
The jury can ignore the judge's instructions and acquit out of sheer stuborness
if they do not agree with the law. The famous case R v C Ponting, in which
Ponting was charged with the Official Scerets Acts for passing confidental
information to an MP. Ponting's defence was that he was acting in the public
interest, but the judge ruled that 'public interest' was the same as the
interest of the government, IE., the public interest is determined by the
government, and instructed the jury to convict, as Ponting is guilty under the
law.
The jury responded by giving a huge metaphorical 'V' sign to the judge (and by
implication, the government of the day)and found Ponting 'Not guilty'.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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