New Hampshire Looks To Require Courts To Inform Juries of Nullification
A bill that recently passed in the New Hampshire House, by a vote of 170-160, is looking to require that courts fully inform juries of their power to nullify.
The new bill, HB133, stipulates that courts would be required to inform the jury of its right to judge not only the facts heard, but the application of the law as well in relation to the incident.
If passed, this would be a great way of furthering the effort to inform the public about their right to engage in jury nullification and that they have a right to not only judge the evidence of the case, but they can judge the law and its application as well.
Juries can use nullification in order to fight against laws they deem immoral, unjust, and/or unconstitutional. It provides a defense against tyranny in enabling the people to do away with controversial legislation (like alcohol prohibition). Now that HB133 received the pass it is going to head to the Senate for more consideration and it will be surprising to see if this one passes.
People have gotten into a lot of trouble in the past by trying to hand out pamphlets and educate jurors/people around court houses on jury nullification. Unfortunately, there are many people tied up in the criminal justice system who could really benefit if the jury over their case was fully informed of their ability to nullify. Maybe then so many people wouldn't be filling up the prisons over charges related to a plant.
Pics:
pixabay
Sources:
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2017/02/new-hampshire-house-passes-bill-that-would-require-courts-to-fully-inform-juries/
https://steemit.com/nullification/@doitvoluntarily/the-power-in-jury-nullification
Excellent, this is a huge step forward. Posting about jury nullification has been on my lengthy "to do on steemit" list.
Hope the bill gets passed !
This is good, but unless it prevents "voir dire" it does little to fix the primary problem: that prosecutors stack the jury full of mindless conformists, thus essentially nullifying the jury as a check on government power. Juries must be purely random, minus those who are (1) familially-related to one of the parties to the action, or (2) doing business with one of the parties to the action. The following essay provides a fuller picture: http://fija.org/docs/BR_YYYY_surviving_voir_dire.pdf
"Voir Dire" ... jury tampering by any other name.
Sometimes I'm in awe at how well the corruption is intertwined with our realities. At other times I simply despise how much we are integrated into a system that treads upon us with little recourse.
I keep harping on those I know about Figa.org. They know I'm not daft... but cognitive dissonance seems to be a hard barrier to overcome. They are starting to come around though.