Jury

In 2022, Exonerations Hit A Record High In The US

May 21, 2023 Jamiles Lartey, The Marshall Project. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Exoneration, Jury, Legal System

History is full of variations on this idea. The core concept reverberates through centuries and across cultures around the globe: It’s worse to punish innocent people than to let the guilty go free. Today, a majority of Americans may not agree. In a series of recent surveys that polled more than 12,000 people, law professors Brandon Garrett and Gregory Mitchell found that more than 60% of Americans “consider false acquittals and false convictions to be equally bad outcomes,” and a “sizeable minority” viewed wrongful acquittals as worse than wrongful convictions. Mitchell and Garrett also found that in mock trials, those more concerned about wrongful acquittals than wrongful convictions were more than twice as likely to convict after viewing the same evidence.

Derek Chauvin And The Myth Of The Impartial Juror

April 7, 2021 Sonali Chakravarti, Black Agenda Report. Educate! George Floyd, Jury, Legal System, Police violence

Did you, or someone close to you, participate in any of the demonstrations or marches against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death?. . . If you participated, did you carry a sign? What did it say? These questions were part of the questionnaire given to those summoned to serve as jurors in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd. Provided that judges and attorneys are willing to take these questions up, they could hold the key for beginning more nuanced conversations about race and the criminal legal system. As is well known, the jury selection process is one of the most consequential and contentious phases of the criminal trial.

Jurors Need To Know Their Power: “Jury Nullification” Prevents Injustice

May 28, 2014 Kevin Mathews, www.truth-out.org Educate! Jury, Law, Legal System

Did you know that, no matter the evidence, if a jury feels a law is unjust, it is permitted to “nullify” the law rather than finding someone guilty? Basically, jury nullification is a jury’s way of saying, “By the letter of the law, the defendant is guilty, but we also disagree with that law, so we vote to not punish the accused.” Ultimately, the verdict serves as an acquittal. Haven’t heard of jury nullification? Don’t feel bad; you’re far from alone. If anything, your unfamiliarity is by design. Generally, defense lawyers are not allowed to even mention jury nullification as a possibility during a trial because judges prefer juries to follow the general protocols rather than delivering independent verdicts. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court has routinely agreed that judges have no obligation to inform juries about jury nullification. Paradoxically, jury nullification is permitted to exist as an option to all juries, yet this option cannot be discussed in most courtrooms. A few years ago, Julian Heicklen handed out pamphlets to passersby on jury nullification to people outside of a federal courthouse. While the former professor was merely attempting to educate people about how the jury system works, he was charged with jury tampering. The prosecution labeled Heicklen “a significant and important threat to our judicial system,” but the judge ultimately disagreed and dismissed the case.

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