[Jury Nullification] is when the jury in a criminal trial gives a verdict of not guilty even though they think a defendant has broken the law. The jury’s reasons may include the belief that the law itself is unjust

Until the wealthy and powerful are held to account, why punish your fellow everyday citizens? Use your brain. Decide if what they’re charging people with is suppression or actually keeping society safe.

When those prosecutors start losing these cases, maybe they will start to rethink who they are focusing on.

  • @cm0002
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    161 day ago

    That goes both ways, people can convict without evidence

    There’s a fail safe for this, a judge can override a juries guilty vote but not a ruling of innocence.

    Still, not ideal because it comes down to one person not agreeing with the jury, but at least there is some protection

    • @[email protected]
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      1 day ago

      IANAL, but it sounds like a “JNOV” could allow the judge to basically throw out a jury decision, regardless of what it is. It’s just that they almost never use it because, as long as the jury hasn’t been compromised or manipulated in some way, they respect the jury system.

      IMO almost everyone (who knows about lemmy) knows about jury nullification. But the real risk people should know about is this JNOV ruling. I could envision a Trump appointed judge trying to use it nefariously in the near future.

      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed
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        16 hours ago

        I could envision a Trump appointed judge trying to use it nefariously in the near future.

        Afiak, that is weaker than a non-guilty verdict from the jury. If a judge overruling a jury, that decision itself can be appealed and…

        looks at composition of the supreme court

        oh… shit… nvm… 👀

      • andyburkeOP
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        31 day ago

        The number of people ITT that want to find some reason they can’t have an impact by quoting obscure legal theorizing is pretty wild to me.

        • @[email protected]
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          51 day ago

          Not sure if you’re including me in that group given that I never said that.

          My assumption is that your goal is to make people aware of our jury system as it relates to the current political climate. If so, we have the same goal 👍.