Comment on Why is Jury Nullification a Thing, But You Can’t Talk About It in Court?
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day agoThat’s the argument.
You might feel thats how things ought to be but you’re unable to support your statement with anything other than the vibe.
We have a system for considering the justice of law. Citizens elect representatives who debate, create, and revise laws on their behalf.
If you feel that someone who kills a CEO you don’t like should be exempt from a charge of murder then you should discuss that with your local representative.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 5 hours ago
That same system also explicitly enables the executive to pardon the accused outright, specifically exempting them from the laws created on behalf of the citizenry. The system itself tells us that legislated laws should not be considered sacrosanct.
The juror’s role is external to that system. Jurors are not representatives of the government, and owe no duties to that government, nor any part of that government.
Juries typically accept legislated law because they choose to. Generally speaking, a jury should abide by the will of the legislature. But, they are not beholden. They are constitutionally empowered to determine that a particular law did not adequately consider the specific circumstances of the accused, and would be unjust to apply.
Demanding that a jury obey the legislature without consideration of their greater constitutional obligation to the accused makes them a representative of the government, rather than a layperson jury.