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If you think jury nullification is a potential problem just wait until you hear that district attorneys have almost absolute authority to decide what crimes are
by parkingrift 4y ago
If you think jury nullification is a potential problem just wait until you hear that district attorneys have almost absolute authority to decide what crimes are punished. One person can unilaterally dictate that petty theft is no longer a crime, for example.
In that lens I don’t believe jury nullification is much of a problem.
- whimsicalism 4y agoOne person, who is typically elected. And that's if federal authorities decide to not get involved.
- netheril96 4y agoIf the whole community believes X is not a crime and willing to nullify the law as juries, certainly they will elect a prosecutor who thinks the same.
- nisegami 4y agoThat's a drastic oversimplification. For one counterexample, consider a prosecutor who believes x but also y. The community agrees on x but not y and consider that a dealbreaker, so the prosecutor is not elected. And this doesn't include issues such as ease of voting and gerrymandering.
- bluGill 4y agoThey will also elect legislators that will remove such laws.
- carlivar 4y agoOr subject to recall. Which is what just happened to San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin.
- quantified 4y agoAfter the cops decided not to arrest, then blame Boudin for not prosecuting. Cops just hanging out watching the crimes.
- whimsicalism 4y agoLet's not turn it into a whole Boudin debate. He was recalled, which indicates some level of voter discontent with how he operated. I personally voted against recall, but it is what it is.
- koheripbal 4y agoWhataboutism
- parkingrift 4y agoPareto principle. Focus on something that matters and is actually happening instead of nonexistent hypotheticals.
- tootie 4y agoDAs and police are directly or indirectly answerable to the public. Court proceedings are generally public record. Elected local governments have authority over law enforcement. See the recent case (without judging it's merits) of Gov DeSantis suspending a DA who refused to enforce abortion bans.
- Lendal 4y agoThe proper remedy for bad governance is to elect different public officials to represent you. Jury nullification is far too weak, even as tinfoil hats go. Sure it's a thing and it's not illegal. It's just silly and unstable, and it should never be depended upon by society to replace good legislation and executive power. Besides the fact that this ruling was about free speech rights, not jury nullification. You can say all you want outside a courthouse as long as you're not disrupting the legal system or trying to sway a particular jury in a specific case.
- namelessoracle 4y ago"The proper remedy for bad governance is to elect different public officials to represent you." After 4 years you can attempt to fix it. Though if the person who you elect actually tries to fix it there's a good chance they will be stopped by the courts from doing so..... E.G. Let's say bad politician hires bad people who implement bad policies. New politician comes in and tries to fire bad people, they sue saying its political persecution and they haven't done anything wrong and haven't violated the standards of their job or their contract. Court upholds it. They continue implementing bad policies, to the point of snubbing their nose at the person who got elected. What is the remedy here?
- quantified 4y agoTo be fair, they tend to only nullify the crimes of the wealthy and well-connected.