Legislature should ensure juries know their options – St. George Daily Spectrum

Mary Burkett, Washington County Republican Party 7:04 a.m. MT March 3, 2017

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Police are given discretion as to which cases they will pursue. They make choices about the severity and intent of a crime.

Prosecutors have discretion about which cases they will take to trial, whether to plea bargain and which offenses are most worth going to trial.

Juries, according to the law, have discretion. In many cases, jurors do not know it.

HB332 (Criminal Procedure Revisions) is before the Utah State Legislature and addresses ensuring that judges instruct juries about their discretion. Take a few minutes to read the summary (le.utah.gov), the first few and last paragraphs of the bill. It is designed to ensure that juries are fully informed of their options when deciding a verdict, including jury nullification.

Most of us dont know that jury nullification is a valid option. Simply put, someone can break a law and show in court that the law is unjust. The jury can then return a not guilty verdict. This is where juries have discretion.

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Its a remarkable idea. As the Libertas Institute explains, Juries serve as one component of a much larger justice system a final checkpoint to help ensure, as far as possible, that innocent individuals are not wrongfully convicted or that well-intentioned laws do not create an injustice by being unfairly applied to a particular person or circumstance.

However, there are judges and lawyers who do not like the idea of jury nullification so they withhold this vital information from the jury. Its much easier to control an ignorant jury. HB332 will stop this withholding of information.

There are high-profile cases in which juries have likely gone rogue.

The O.J. Simpson jury may very well have practiced nullification by finding the defendant not guilty even though they thought he had committed two murders but because the investigating detectives were seen as racists, they were justified to find him not guilty.

Other legal experts have called the George Zimmerman verdict in the Trayvon Martin case a classic example of jury nullification.

In 2009, Doug Darrell was charged with cultivating marijuana for distribution in New Hampshire. He said that the marijuana was being grown for personal use and religious purposes. His attorney actually had to ask the judge to tell the jury they had the right to nullify and they did.

Circumstances surrounding most jury nullification cases include unjust laws, unjust sentencing guidelines, victimless crimes and particulars of a single case, including mitigating factors.

Jury nullification is neither a Democrat or Republican issue, although many Libertarians have taken it up as a cause.

The bigger point is simple. And very important. When there are injustices, juries, a group of regular Americans pulled from voter rolls, can right wrongs. Its one of the many ways that the Founders showed their faith in their fellow citizens.

Its an optimistic view of the future, so contrary to the view liberals hold toward their fellow Americans. Where liberals treat their fellow Americans like victims, constantly trying to allow the government to interfere with their lives, with the intent of fixing things citizens are better served to fix themselves, our Founders and today, conservatives, have high hopes and expectations for the American people. We have faith in our fellow citizens, as demonstrated by the idea of jury nullification.

A few of the great resources online to learn more include Fully Informed Jury Association, Cop Block, Truth in Justice and the Libertas Institute.

Mary Burkett is a member of the Washington County Republican Party.

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Legislature should ensure juries know their options - St. George Daily Spectrum