Jury Nullification Paper Essay

dialog box nullification is a constitutional philosophical system that allows juries to acquit defendants who ar technically criminals guilt tripy, provided who do non de assist punishment. It occurs in a streamlet when a control panel reaches a finding of fact contrary to the thinks book of instructions as to the impartiality. A venire finding of fact contrary to the letter of the faithfulness does non belong barely to the particular racing shell before it. If a pattern of acquittals, how of all time, develops in response to repeated attempts to prosecute a statutory offense, it can guide the de facto lay out of invalidating the statute. A pattern of dialog box nullification may indicate common opposition to an unwanted legislative enactment. In the past, it was feared that may unduly influence a render alone or a panel of public officials to follow open legal traffic pattern, even if such practice had drifted from its origins. In or so modern Hesperian legal systems, however, often instruct juries lonesome(prenominal) serve as finders of facts, whose role is to fixate the verametropolis of the evidence, and the weight accorded to evidence, to implement these tests the equity and reach a verdict, further non decide what the law is .Jury everywhereride It is not only the jurors right, unless his duty to find the verdict tally to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the burster of the court. This is what lavatory Adams said of jury nullification. John Jay, who was the number one justice of the Supreme motor lodge said, The jury has the right to judge ii the law as well as the fact in controversy. So what is jury nullification and how does it influence tourist court legal proceeding and legal practices? The definition of jury nullification according to thefreedictionary.com website jury nullification is delineate as a sanctioned doctrine wherein members of ajury disre gard either the evidence presented or the instructions of the judge in order to reach a verdict base upon their own consciences.It espo routines the c at a timept that jurors should be the judges of both law and fact. The doctrine of jury nullification is based one important things, one that a juror can never be punished for the verdict they bring spine to the judge, and second that a defendant cannot ever be retried once the jury has returned to the courtroom with a not unlawful verdict. The first causal agency of jury nullification in British law dates moxie to 1670 in trial of William Mead and William draw upn, (William Penn would later go on to be the erecter of the Province of Pennsylvania) these ii men were charged in England for guilty assembly, which was a law that was aimed at preventing distinct religious groups that were not noticed by the crown from worshipping. Both of these men were understandably guilty of breaking the law according to British law and the judge presiding over the case demanded that the jury find William involve and William Penn guilty, but the jury refused to find these two men guilty because they felt that the law itself Jury Nullification was unjust. The judge go along to insist that the jury find these two men guilty, and the jury repeatedly refused, the judge became so infuriated with the jurors that he threw the jurors in prison.The highest court in England ordered that the jurors be released and established into common law the integrity of jurors in criminal cases. In the States the Founding Fathers recognized the relevance of permit jurors determine not only the guilt or innocence of the person on trial, but the fairness of the law in which the person is charged with breaking. In to a greater extent(prenominal)(prenominal) recent cases, in California a jury convicted Ed Rosenthal in two-thousand troika of growing marijuana which was a irreverence of federal law. During the case the jury did not sack out and was never allowed to hear that not only was Ed Rosenthal growing aesculapian marijuana for medical patients, but he was growing and harvesting the marijuana for the city of Oakland, California. When the trial ended and the jury found out the true facts of the case they were appall and the foreman of the jury was quoted in the impudently York Times as saying it is the most horrible mistake I chip in ever made in my holy manners. Should Ed Rosenthal been convicted of growing marijuana? I feel that he should not support been convicted and the jury had a right to know the uprightness about who Ed Rosenthal was growing the marijuana for and for who it was being provided to.An new(prenominal) case would be that of RichardPen of Florida, who is fate a twenty-five year prison sentence in Florida for distribution of a controlled substance. Richard Pen was a forty-six year white-haired ill man who became a paraplegic later being involved in a very serious c equal to(p) c ar accident that badly damaged his back, and after having back surgery that did not go as planned, Richard Pen was left in indescribable nitty-grittys of pain. Richard Pen realized that Jury Nullification. He could relieve his pain by taking large amounts of opiate painkillers, but the amount of practice of medicine his doctor had prescribed him was not enough, and they could not prescribe him anymore because it would come about the amount of what his doctor could legally prescribe.Richard Paey felt that he had no choice but to obtain the medication illegally and he began photocopying the prescription and used them to get his medication from local pharmacies. Richard Paey was arrested and was charged with distribution of a controlled substance, but he never sell the medication, and never gave the medication away, he only used the medication for himself so that he could locomote somewhat of a common existence and be free from the torture pain that he was in. But once again becau se of the way the laws are written the jury had no choice but to return to the court with a guilty verdict.In these two cases, I do feel that they did break the law, but should they excite been found guilty of the charges against them? I do not feel that they should, and if the jurors were allowed to hear the truth about these cases these two men, Ed Rosenthal, and Richard Paey would not be divine service time in prison, and since the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors on the federal level can remain to arrest and charge people who use medical marijuana, you should expect to see more and more cases like this crowding up our courtrooms. You will probably see more and more cases such as Richard Paey, and other patients like him who are just severe to manage their pain and try to live somewhat of a normal life crowding up our courtrooms as well.So what can us as citizens do to undo the injustice of the Richard Paeys and the Ed Rosenthals? Well unless you are serving on a jury pa nel, nothing, but if you happen to get a jury Jury Nullification Summons in the mail, do not ignore it as I have done more, many times before although I did have valid reasons for not being able to serve as a juror, I had a disabled parent and I was his sole caregiver, instead send back the summons stating that you are available to serve as a juror, and who knows you might be able to undo someof the injustices of the judicial system, and keep an innocent person from serving a lengthy prison sentence.Referenceshttp//legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/jury+nullification http//www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163877,00.html http//www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/emal1.1.1.html