The Importance of Jury Nullification
I was called to jury duty along with about 45 other people to form a jury of 14 people - 12 jurors and 2 alternate jurors. The experience reminded me of the importance of understanding our history and our Constitutional rights. This was a felony criminal case, so the defendant faced substantial punishment, and that person is depending on their fellow citizens to do their civic duty and find not only the truth, but justice . As you will see, those two are not necessarily one and the same. It is critically important for us, as citizens, to take jury duty seriously and understand what is being asked of us. Unfortunately, the judge and the attorneys, during the jury questioning process, not only failed to explain those rights, but they go out of their way to imply that as a juror, you "can only follow the law" in deciding the case. There were many questions of potential jurors from the attorneys asking "can you follow the law as the judge explains it" and...