my question about how do we determine which nullifications we should allow? or should we just endorse them all? including some oif the ones i quoted and linked to. did i phrase the question poorly or is the answerr troublesome?
I wonder at all the spleen-venting over the possibility that citizens might exercise the power of jury nullification. But, then, any power-relationship will cause great squawking on the part of those who would like to have more of it and others to have less of it...
csd:
The way I see it, JN is
power*. Powers are generally granted to gov't in the face of the
rights & liberties of the citizenry and at their expense.
The jury is one of the very few cases where power is granted to citizens who are not gov't officials.
Power is morally/ethically neutral. Just like inanimate objects. They can be used for good or evil.
JN is no different.
Contemporary (contemptuous?) lawyerly types are trying to grasp more power** at the expense of juries and non-gov't/non-lawyer citizens. The SS and BW present two of the current arguments in favor of wresting this power from the hands of the citizens.
I side with the citizenry and support nearly every means to increase a citizen's power in the face of an actively self-aggrandizing gov't and its technocrat functionaries and symbiotes.
Power only respects a greater power and I think it best that gov't officials have some respect for the citizenry. Fear would be better, IMO, but I'll settle for respect.
What it boils down to is the moral worth of those we place on juries. If they are reprobates, their decisions as jurors will likely be skewed toward the irresponsible or evil. If they are upstanding citizens, I would expect the opposite outcome.
In the case of GigaBuist's prosecutor, we see the results of moral citizens using JN in the past to generate respect and fear on the part of the prosecutor who decides not to prosecute what is clearly a violation of an unjust law.
In the case of csd's examples, we see immoral reprobates and the hash*** they make of the jury system. As with gun control, I see no reason to deprive the good and moral power & liberty because the immoral and debased can not handle it.
* As is the jury system as a whole, of which JN is merely one component
** This has been the trend for a century and the lawyerization of American society is quite striking and overbearing.
*** Not the only example, given the state of neighborhoods, economies, and governments in such "urban" secotrs.