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Jury nullification: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification A jury can rule on questions of law.
by pilsetnieks 13y ago
Jury nullification: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
A jury can rule on questions of law.
- SEMW 13y agoNo. Jury nullification does not mean a jury gets to rule that 'thing X is not illegal'. Rather, it's a jury saying 'I know thing X is illegal (and I can't change that), but I'm going to say that the defendant is not guilty of doing thing X, even though I think he did, because I think thing X shouldn't be illegal'. That may sound like a fine distinction, but it isn't, it's crucial. A legal precedent that X is not a crime means no-one can thereafter get tried for X (where the precedent applies). A jury nullification doesn't have that effect.
- mullingitover 13y agoTrue, but if it happens regularly enough that the law can't be successfully enforced, the law itself would be de facto nullified.