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Any American charged with a crime has a right to a trial by jury. If you request one in court, you will get one...
What a lot of people seem to not know is that the jury deciding your fate doesn’t only have two options. A jury can decide NOT to charge you, even if they believe you have committed a crime. Instead of guilty or not guilty, a jury can elect to nullify the charges. Nullification is what happens when the defendant had committed a crime, but the jury doesn’t think it’s right to charge them, because they think a certain law is unfair, or the punishment is unjust.
A lot of people also don't know that if juries frequently nullify the same charge in different cases it creates a sort of precedent, essentially Getting rid of whatever statute is repeatedly nullified. Baaically if a law is unfair and people realize that and nullify those charges enough, it gets rid of said unjust law. Judges, district attorneys and private defense attorneys aren’t allowed to bring this up in court. It’s your job to know this on your own so spread the word.
I’m not sure about other states but take a disorderly conduct charge, for example. In my state a disorderly conduct is basically a catch-all, it’s so vague and arbitrary you can get charged with it for just about anything. If the cops have nothing to arrest you or ticket you for, they’ll act like getting stopped by the cops or getting the cops called on you is actually a crime in itself and will charge you with a disorderly conduct. At least that’s how it is whee I’m from.
So remember, if you end up in a jury trial for a case where the defendant is being charged with disorderly conduct for a complete non-issue, or some 18 year old kid is being charged with sexual assault for being with his 17 year old girlfriend or something equally ridiculous. Nullification is an option. It’s on you to know this.
What a lot of people seem to not know is that the jury deciding your fate doesn’t only have two options. A jury can decide NOT to charge you, even if they believe you have committed a crime. Instead of guilty or not guilty, a jury can elect to nullify the charges. Nullification is what happens when the defendant had committed a crime, but the jury doesn’t think it’s right to charge them, because they think a certain law is unfair, or the punishment is unjust.
A lot of people also don't know that if juries frequently nullify the same charge in different cases it creates a sort of precedent, essentially Getting rid of whatever statute is repeatedly nullified. Baaically if a law is unfair and people realize that and nullify those charges enough, it gets rid of said unjust law. Judges, district attorneys and private defense attorneys aren’t allowed to bring this up in court. It’s your job to know this on your own so spread the word.
I’m not sure about other states but take a disorderly conduct charge, for example. In my state a disorderly conduct is basically a catch-all, it’s so vague and arbitrary you can get charged with it for just about anything. If the cops have nothing to arrest you or ticket you for, they’ll act like getting stopped by the cops or getting the cops called on you is actually a crime in itself and will charge you with a disorderly conduct. At least that’s how it is whee I’m from.
So remember, if you end up in a jury trial for a case where the defendant is being charged with disorderly conduct for a complete non-issue, or some 18 year old kid is being charged with sexual assault for being with his 17 year old girlfriend or something equally ridiculous. Nullification is an option. It’s on you to know this.
