Jury Duty and Nullfication

Lergnom
Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:43:42 +0000

I was on a jury that nullified a law regarding possession of hand grenades. The law requires that hand grenades have a serial number and be registered but testimony was that they’re sold by the crate with the crate itself having the only number. (This may have changed, of course.) We felt it was unfair to convict a person - who was a bad guy - of a law he couldn’t satisfy. It became clear the defense wanted me on the jury - who would put a lawyer, let alone someone who’d worked in prosecution and defense on a jury? - because they were hoping for nullification. After the trial, the judge told us he had the same reservations about the law and indicated he might have dismissed a guilty verdict if we’d gone that way.

As to a person who doesn’t believe in the justice system, my opinion is this: seek professional help. You need to identify the sources of your anger, mistrust and paranoia.

BTW, I’ve sat at both the prosecution and the defense table.