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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 11:36 AM EDT |
| Judges don't want you to know about jury nullification. Lawyers don't want
jurors to know about nullification (or when they do they keep it to themselves,
not to suffer the ire of the judges)
It's a shame not more people on juries
know about nullification. It is the safeguard against the letter of the
law leading to unjust verdicts. As a society develops views will change. Laws
invariably lag behind the developments of society. Mostly in my opinion because
the old are dominating government and the young are moving society
forward.
Jury nullification is the best tool to force government to address
laws that are no longer supported by a large part of the public. (chances of
nullification were it know by everyone would increase as the majority of society
shifts)
But there is another problem that needs to be solved before jury
nullification can be considered as such. Jury selection is broken.
I know a
great many people that believe copyrights are broken. Yet if you say that in
voire dire you will get eliminated from the jury pool in a copyright case. This
will effectively bias these jurors towards copyright hardliners as it favors
those that consider the current system just. How then can this be considered a
jury of peers?
In my case this would also ignore the fact that although
I think the law is wrong, I'm perfectly capable of deciding if someone broke
that law. With what I know of the case I would have no problem finding Jammie
Thomas guilty for example. But I would never have awarded more damages than the
statutory minimum in damages. The statutory damages part of copyright law is one
of the parts that is badly broken. I believe the punishment should fit the
crime, and being sentenced to a life of poverty does not fit the crime of
sharing songs on the internet.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- MUST? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 11:44 AM EDT
- MUST? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 12:18 PM EDT
- MUST? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 17 2012 @ 01:51 PM EDT
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