Jury Nullification

Jury Nullification
	THE AMERICAN JURY BULWARK OF DEMOCRACY	About the Project Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago Chicago Historical Society National Endowment for the Humanities
AN ONLINE RESOURCE GUIDE
Lessons and Activities Jury Trials for the Classroom Resources from the Chicago Historical Society Web Resources Print Resources Site Index HISTORY AND PURPOSE Origins of the American Jury Formation of the American Jury STRUCTURE Introduction to Trial by Jury Grand Jury Right of the Accused to Trial by Jury Jury Selection: Voir Dire Jury of One's Peers Jury Deliberation ISSUES Evidence Jury Nullification Jury Trials and the Media Jury Damage Awards Comparative Jury Systems FUTURE Jury in American Society Jury Reform Future of the American Jury	Juries are charged today with the responsibility of reaching a verdict based on the facts of a case within the law as it is explained by the trial judge. Almost since the beginning of the jury in England, however, jurors have engaged in "nullification," where the jury exercises its discretion "in favor of a defendant whom the jury nonetheless believes to have committed the act with which he is charged" (Green, 1985). Jury deliberations are secret; thus, nullification is both a covert and controversial activity. When people suspect that it has occurred, nullification is seen as a fundamental threat to the rule of law, a triumph of democratic government, or (paradoxically) a little of both. This section of "The American Jury" offers background and resources on jury nullification- what it is, how and when it occurs, and why it arouses such strong passions. It also offers lessons and classroom resources to help students explore and understand this issue.	LIST OF LESSONS Jury Nullification: Definitions and Examples How Close Is Close Enough? A Violation of the "Sex Offender Registration Act"? LINKS TO RELEVANT SITES Fugitive from Labor Cases: Henry Garnett (1850) and Moses Honner (1860) The "Conscience of the Community" Arizona Judicial Branch: The American Jury Fully Informed Jury Association Jury Rights Project
	PRINT RESOURCES Green, Thomas Andrew. Verdict According to Conscience: Perspectives on the English Criminal Trial Jury, 1200-1800 (1985), Introduction, pp. xiii-xx, and especially Ch. 6 "The Principle of Non-Coercion: The Contest over the Role of the Jury in the Restoration," pp. 200-264. Katz, Stanley Nider, (Ed.). "Introduction," pp. 1-33, in James Alexander, A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger Printer of the New York Weekly Journal (1972). Kennedy, Randall. "Racial Conduct by Jurors and Judges: The Problem of the Tainted Conviction," pp. 277-282, and "Black Power in the Jury Box?", pp. 295-310, Race, Crime and the Law (1997). Finkelman, Paul, Kermit Hall, and William Wiecek, (Eds.). American Legal History, pp. 27-29.
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