It's easy to feel intimidated, but I'm too much of a cub scout to not tell the entire truth. The truth is, in some matters, I AM biased, we all are.

God knows I'm no lawyer, but from what I've read, should you decide not to follow the judge's instructions, whatever they may be, you do so at your own peril, and you risk a Contempt of Court citation.

All I know is -- and I know precious little -- you do as you are told.

That has all sorts of nasty implications. It's grounds to go to a higher court for a Writ of Habus Corpus. Look on the Judges face when that's served on him would be well worth seeing.

Yes it was. But to make a point.

I resent that. I am NOT benighted.

Actually, jury nulification is one of the better traditions we inherited from our English oppressors. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The reason it doesn't work as well as it might is that (a) judges don't have set rules about what they have to inform the jury about, (b) it annoys judges so they don't talk about it, (c) most people aren't aware of it, and (d) if you are the only person on the jury who is holding the works up, the rest are going to eventually wear you down until you give in. Also, if you mention that you even know about jury nulification, odds are, one side or the other will object to you being on the jury, if not both.

It's one of those little known and rarely used perks of our justice system. It's just that there are too many ignorant sheep in this country.

About 45 years ago, there was a science fiction author named H. Beam Piper. I think he would have fit in here, but he commited suicide. Good stuff, I recommend his writtings.

I mention him becuase in one of his stories he wrote a line that I'll never be able to foget. It descibed the perfect jury: "Twelve men, good and true, who couldn't pour sand out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heal."

If you are too smart, the lawyers don't want you in the jury box.

In an urban setting, I would say knowing your rights and responsabilities as a citizen (or subject, if you are on of our British friends) is at least as important as knowing how to make shelter in a wilderness setting.

I always get kicked out of the jury pool. *pouts* I get board waiting during selection, so I take a little pocket sized book that has the Consititution, the Federalist Papers, et al, with the Constitution right on the cover. For some reason, they don't like me.

I must admit that I found Grand Jury interesting - 23 people, you need 12 to indict. 16 must have been present for all testimony to vote (most days we had all 23) -4 week term (my boss paid) - Gran Jurors get treated a bit better than regular jurors, as they KNOW you are going to be there for quite a while (special GJs around here can sit for 6 MONTHS - but only 2-3 days/week)

There is NO juror selection for GJ in this county - you are called, and if you don't have health/chaildcare or financial reasons you can't serve - your ON - no other questions - and if your company pays, that is considered "no financial reasons" - I think we lost 2-3 candidates out of the pool, otherwise it was "first 23 through the door" (actually we had 3 GJs start the same day, so it was first 69 through the door) - we had research scientists, scrub nurses, retired folks, bookkeepers, teachers, programmers, etc

Jury nullification <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I admit I knew nothing about this at all. A well-kept secret.

-- Craig