Why was he prosecuted?
BankAmerica
forced the county prosecutor to pursue charges, because
the original chalk
comments were extremely unfavourable to
BankAmerica.
The branch manager
claimed that it cost the branch four hundred and
something dollars to clean up
the graffiti. Either the branch manager did
not know that that branch had
contracts with two organisations that
clean up graffiti with no additional
charge --- it is part of the monthly
service fee they are paid --- or that the
county also offers gratis graffiti
cleanup, or else is willing to spend money
unnecessarily, thereby
demonstrating incompetence in maximising
profitability.
the police have the power to make you
clean up any mess you have
created.
Whilst the law
allows for that, under current law, one can claim
"selective prosecution", if
the defendant can demonstrate that the
specific activity that caused the charge
to be filed is done by other
parties, but those other parties are not charged
with a crime.
As a general rule of thumb, "selective prosecution"
defences only work
when the last time a charge was filed was several decades
earlier, and
the local newspaper has carried stories since then, about the
specific
activity. IOW, just because there have been no murders in Podunk,
you
can't claim "selective prosecution", if you kill somebody in Podunk, and
are charged with murder.
"Jury Nullification" is when the jury rules
that a law is egregiously
unconstitutional, and as such, should never have been
passed. They rule
that the law is null and void.
"Jury nullification"
is not when the jury rules the defendant "not guilty",
because they think the
defendant should not have been charged in the
first place.
I am not a
lawyer. This is not legal advice. Insert other standard
disclaimers here. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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