Is Jury Nullification the Ultimate Tool Against Tyranny?

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It may be appropriate, in light of the continued persecution of protesters in the January 6 riots, to examine what is perhaps the most powerful weapon that an individual can use to fight unjust government overreach.

Fully Informed Jury Association

When a jury renders a verdict of Not Guilty, even though the jurors are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that a defendant has violated the law, this is called “jury nullification”. The law in this case is nullified because the Not Guilty decision cannot be reversed and the jurors are not punished.

The jury nullification method has been used in history to invalidate unjust laws.

As these rejections of the enforcement of laws accumulate over time, they become unenforceable. This rejection of laws such as the Fugitive slave laws and alcohol prohibition has undermined their enforcement. It is not worth the effort, embarrassment, or time for government officials to try to enforce these laws. These laws may also be nullified by either not being enforced or repealed.

Double Jeopardy is a clause in the Fifth Amendment that prohibits the government from retrying a case in the event that it has been acquitted. Jurors who use their right to overturn laws that they believe are unjust will not be punished.

It is a practice that has its origins in Americana. The British Crown was defamed in the days before the Revolution when they were abusing the colonists without consequence. Nullification was born in America when a colonial jury ignored British law and acquitted dissidents. J.B. Weinstein wrote in the American Criminal Law Review that nullification, along with civil disobedience may be considered an integral part of the founding of this nation.

The jury nullification tool is the only individual tool that allows the individual to use his or her moral judgment in the criminal justice system, above and beyond whether or not the letter of the law was violated.

It is a problem for those who support jury nullification that they are not allowed to introduce the idea during court proceedings. If jurors want to learn about their power, they will have to do so outside the courtroom.

Two reasons are at play: The district attorneys, who are all partisan Democrats, will prosecute anyone George Soros instructs them to, and the jury pool, which is more relevant to this discussion, is also overwhelmingly partisan.

In these cases, nullifying a jury is a less-effective strategy, because people with strong moral values and a good understanding of their Constitutional Rights are less likely to be on a juror — a factor that again influences the Democrats in their choice of venues for their “show trials.”

It only takes one person for the state’s prosecution system to be thrown into disarray.