Jury Nullification and Democracy

Jury Nullification and DemocracyTop of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 947, Segment 5

Nov 20, 2018 • 14m

Guest: Ilya Somin, Professor of Law, George Mason University Most states require a jury to come to a unanimous decision in order to convict someone of a serious crime. There’s a long-delayed correction to Louisiana’s old racially driven jury law. There is little-known power that juries hold. What would you do if you were sitting on a jury and you felt strongly that the law itself was unjust – or that the punishment was too severe? It turns out juries have a solution in their toolkit. It’s called jury nullification – which simply means that a jury can return a “not guilty” verdict if they object to the law itself or to the severity of the likely sentence.

Other Segments

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Guest: Eric Jensen, Professor of International Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School Florida’s very close Senate and Governor’s races were finally settled this week after a messy round of recounts that resulted in one key election official resigning. President Trump claimed, without evidence, that voter fraud had taken place in those races. But what about Russian interference? Heading into the mid-terms top US security officials warned Russia was actively trying to disrupt the election.

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