Can a juror in America negate a law by voting against it in a court trial?
You’d better believe they can!
Most American Citizens are not aware they have the right to vote their conscience in a court case where they are selected to serve as a juror. That is, they can negate a bad law by acquitting a defendant, declaring him/her innocent, even when they clearly broke the law.
This is the reason the jury system was established by the Founders as the last check of a government turned tyrannical toward its citizenry. Many judges will prevent attorneys from informing jurors of this right… even holding some in contempt for doing so. But it is clearly within the right of citizen jurors to take such action.
And no one can prevent them from taking such action.
There would be no point in even having jurors if this were not the case. A judge could just determine the guilt or innocence and be done with the case. But a trial made up of jurors from the defendant’s community, randomly selected, would provide them the chance to have not only their innocence determined but also the validity of the law itself, which was claimed to have been broken.
The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) is attempting to educate all US citizens of their right in this regard. And it is important to help educate those who are unaware of this fact.
Captain James Green served as a volunteer United Nations lobbyist in New York, Geneva, The Hague, Lisbon, Riga, and Paris. He taught graduate school at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, Peoples’ Republic of China and is currently a tenured Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Aviation Sciences at Utah Valley University where he was the Department Chairman for two years. James is a member of the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA), promoting the correct interpretation of the jury system. He is a frequent author and contributor speaking out on political, societal, and economic issues of the day. He will be speaking at FreedomFest at the Paris Resort, Las Vegas, this July. For information go to www.freedomfest.com or call 1-855-850-3733.
