The Founding Fathers guaranteed trial by jury three times in the Constitution—more than any other right—since juries can serve as the final check on government’s power to enforce unjust, immoral, or oppressive laws. But in America today, how independent c

Jury nullification, in its simplest definition, occurs when a jury returns a not guilty verdict for a defendant it believes to be legally guilty of the crime charged. To put this explicitly, a jury nullifies when, despite believing both a) that the defendant did, beyond a reasonable doubt, commit the act/omission in question, and b) that such behavior is, in fact, prohibited by law, nevertheless declares the defendant innocent. This book explores the specifically philosophical aspects of the phenomenon. Is jury nullification a right? A power? A mere ability? A privilege? A pernicious form of juror malfeasance? Is a system that allows for jury nullification more, or less just, than one that does not? This important book fills a gap in the current scholarship around jury nullification, which, for the most part, has been confined to purely doctrinal analyses, rather than the broader ethical, social, political, and philosophical contours of this issue.

Jury Nullification is a must read that everyone will find interesting and informative. Jury Nullified explores and reveals the hidden truth behind the coveted jury trial system. While jurors conscientiously struggle to achieve a fair and just verdict, the judge may have already determined the verdict. No Constitutional Right can be more important to protecting citizens against tyranny than the right to trial by jury. Citizens will determine criminal guilt or innocence rather than the King or some governmental body. With more than two decades of trial experience, the author takes an insider look at how judges are successful in circumventing the 6th Amendment.

Delivering a verdict that goes against the law, termed jury nullification, is a seldom studied phenomenon which has severe implications for the judicial system. Research on the topic suggests that those who know about nullification are more likely to advocate for it during deliberations and that jury nullification often occurs when there is perceived unfairness surrounding the trial. This research examined whether juveniles tried as adults are at risk of jury nullification and whether information regarding jury nullification or sex offender registry can affect nullification rates in a trial involving a juvenile accused of sexual assault. A between subjects design was implemented where 70 undergraduate students were recruited and placed in juries alongside a confederate researcher. Three conditions, a sex offender registry, a nullification, and a control condition were created by having the confederate share a homework assignment with the jury regarding the established topics. While introducing this information was hypothesized to increase nullification rates, no increase was observed when compared to a control. However, revealing a mandatory minimum law post-deliberation did influence several jurors to report they would have nullified their verdict had this information been known during deliberation. Results of this study suggest that jury nullification for juvenile defendants charged as adults can occur when specific injustices are perceived by the juror and that further research on this topic is needed to better understand the conditions or information that may lead a juror to give a nullified verdict for a juvenile defendant.

In this timely book, Norman Finkel looks at the relationship between the “law on the books,” as set down in the Constitution and developed in cases and decisions, and what he calls “commonsense justice”: the ordinary citizen’s notions of what is just and fair.

Disk contains forms from the printed text in MS Word 6.0, WordPerfect 5.1 and text formats.

On the case of the seditious libel published by William Jones, entitled: Principles of government in a dialogue between a gentleman and a farmer, which W.D. Shipley, the Dean of St. Asaph was accused of publishing.