3 ms·

"jury nullification": I never heard of this before. Can you name any examples that anyone except lawyers / judges would know?

• throwaway17_17 3y ago
  Jury nullification is where a jury ‘nullifies’ a legally correct verdict in a trial by voting against it for other reasons. In my line of work, the most frequently cited instances of jury nullification was the 10 juror requirement for a verdict in the State of Louisiana. The reduced requirement (from most jurisdictions 12 unanimous jurors) was instituted explicitly to allow for ‘white’ criminal defendants to be acquitted of crimes against African-American. Following reconstruction, the jury needed to appear like it could have racially diverse individuals serve on it, so they lowered the requirement for the number of agreeing jurors required so if two African-Americans actually made it on the jury their votes would not count. The typical historical ‘example’ would be the jury finding a ‘white’ defendant not guilty of a clearly proven crime (murder, rape, battery, etc.) A more modern example would be a jury finding a defendant not guilty of possession of marijuana even though the defendant obviously had MJ in their possession.
  • hedora 3y ago
    Other modern examples include Musk’s stock manipulation trial, and jurors refusing to convict in cases where police use excessive force.
• ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  There's some on the Wikipedia page e.g. > In 2021, six activists associated with the environmental protest organisation Extinction Rebellion were tried for causing criminal damage to the British headquarters of the multinational oil company Royal Dutch Shell. The judge told the jury that there was 'no defence in law' for the protestors' actions, which according to the prosecutor had caused 'significant damage' to the building, but the activists were acquitted