Sunday, January 24, 2010

Jury Nullification: A Case Study

This story was written by a staff writer for the Washington Post who ended up on jury duty:

Last week I was a juror in the trial of a man accused of selling a $10 bag of heroin to an undercover police officer. At the end of the two days of testimony, I concluded that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I also concluded that he should be acquitted.

You can read the whole story here; the bottom line is that police fabricated evidence to make their case stronger, and the jury acquited.   The writer's key insight:

I believe they had the right guy, too. But the willingness to cheat, I think, is a poisonous corruption of a system designed to protect the innocent at the risk of occasionally letting the guilty walk free. It's a good system, fundamental to freedom. I think a police officer willing to cheat is more dangerous than a two-bit drug peddler.

9 comments:

Big T said...

Interesting. The police framed a guilty man.

Jess said...

Bravo.

In a similar situation, I would nullify all drug verdicts, regardless of the behavior of the police. I wouldn't nullify actual crimes such as assault or theft unless there were other reasons to do so. (In fairness, I'd probably nullify on theft if the value involved was $10 as it was in this case. Really, people, let's have a sense of proportion.) The system is broken and we must change it somehow.

The columnist is in a fortunate position, since as an alternate he probably can't be found in contempt even after publishing this account. I wonder how common this phenomenon is already. Certainly police haven't noticed it yet, or at least they haven't taken enough notice. But perhaps prosecutors have, and so on this sort of case they go in prepared to drop on a hung jury? With so many incentives for police tending in the opposite direction, however, I don't expect prosecutorial indifference to have much effect.

Anonymous said...

So.....how is his cheating as a juror different than the police cheating the guilty party?

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