Jul 28, 2005
Jury Nullification
My Fox News column this week is a primer on the doctrine of jury nullification, and encourages readers to use it from time to time.
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Aeon J. Skoble - 7/28/2005
I've never been through voir dire and I'm not a lawyer, but I'm not sure this question would contradict Radley's suggestion. Couldn't we construe "applying the law in this case" to include "deciding that it's unjust"? Isn't that what they did in the Fugitive Slave cases? Or Penn's case?
William J. Stepp - 7/28/2005
One problem with serving on a jury is that in the voir dire process you get asked if you could apply the law in the case under consideration. No libertarian could truthfully say yes in a drug case. Of course, you could lie, be selected for duty, and then argue that the law is unjust.
A month ago I went down to the court to go through this process and just flipped a copy of my Anarchist Antidefamation League card on the judge's imposing desk.
An hour later I was dismissed along with a few other malcontents.
I have thought about offering a course on how to get out of jury "duty."
Aeon J. Skoble - 7/28/2005
Good piece! Esp. the last line.