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The Power of the Jury Alun Buffry Blog Tuesday 22 Feb 2011 The jury's purpose has always been to assess whether a law has been brokenand whether the law itself has been justly applied – that is: should the case havebeen brought to court, when there is no victim, no loss and no danger to other people or society? THE QUESTION TO BE ASKED IS: DOES THIS PROSECUTION REFLECT THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW? Where a jury deliberately rejects the evidence or refuses to apply the law either because the jury wants to send a message about a social issue or because the result dictated by the law is against the juror’s sense of justice or morality – this is called jury nullification. YOU THE JUROR HAVE THE RIGHT TO ACQUIT SOMEONE ON THE GROUNDS THAT THE APPLICATION OF LAW IS WRONG IN A PARTICULAR CASE, OR EVEN THAT THE LAW ITSELF IS WRONG. When to nullify: Consider a prosecution under the Misuse of Drugs Act, where a person has cultivated of cannabis in private, for their own use only. There may be no suggestion of supply to others – no other people were involved, no profit intended. We should ask: was this law introduced to punish people who grow or use a plant to their benefit, when they do no harm at all to other people and are no danger to society? Of course not – it was meant to reduce damage from drugs misuse! Then maybe such a prosecution is a mis-application of the law and good reason to return a verdict of NOT GUILTY, whatever the judges and barristers say. It is a juror’s right. http://www.ccguide.org/lca/leaflets/jury_nullification_flier.pdf http://alunbuffry.blogspot.com/2011/02/power-of-jury.html
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