Bronx, New York City: Michael Picard Arrested for Promoting Jury Nullification, Federal Court Says That Was Illegal.

[Democide]

He Was Arrested for Promoting Jury Nullification. A Federal Court Says That Was Illegal.
Michael Picard's free speech rights were violated when he was booked for telling passersby to "Google Jury Nullification."

5 August 2022

A man was wrongfully arrested for standing outside a Bronx courthouse handing out flyers about jury nullification, the practice where juries render "not guilty" verdicts despite overwhelming evidence of guilt, a federal court confirmed last week. Michael Picard, a civil libertarian activist, was taken into custody in late 2017 after police took issue with him passing out papers telling recipients to "Google Jury Nullification," as law enforcement alleged he was in violation of a New York law barring people from standing within 200 feet of a courthouse "calling for or demanding any specified action or determination by such court or ...

He was arrested for promoting jury nullification. A federal court says that was illegal.

Michael Picard's free speech rights were violated when he was booked for telling passersby to "Google Jury Nullification."

reason.com

 

[Democide]

Background:


Judges Fight Over Jury Nullification

30 March 2020

Most judges balk at the prospect of jury nullification—the right and power of juries to bring "not guilty" verdicts when defendants violate laws that jurors consider unjust or wrongly applied. Some of them get extremely mad when a fellow judge endorses the practice in his own courtroom. That's exactly what happened in December 2019, when a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill for telling prosecutors and defense attorneys that before them was a "shocking case" that "calls for jury nullification." The prosecution that shocked Underhill was a dubious federal ...

Judges Fight Over Jury Nullification

Most judges balk at the prospect of jury nullification—the right and power of juries to bring "not guilty" verdicts when...

reason.com

 

[Democide]

Background:

This Crackdown on a Jury Nullification Activist Violates the First Amendment
What’s at stake in Michigan v. Wood

2 February 2020

"Leafletting and commenting on matters of public concern are classic forms of speech that lie at the heart of the First Amendment, and speech in public areas is at its most protected on public sidewalks, a prototypical example of a traditional public forum." So held the U.S. Supreme Court in Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York (1997). Unfortunately, the Michigan Court of Appeals has taken a dimmer view of what the First Amendment protects. In Michigan v. Wood (2018), that court upheld the criminal conviction of Keith Eric Wood for handing out pro-jury-nullification pamphlets while standing on the ...

This Crackdown on a Jury Nullification Activist Violates the First Amendment

"Leafletting and commenting on matters of public concern are classic forms of speech that lie at the heart of the...

reason.com

 

[Democide]

Background:


The Originalist Case for Jury Nullification

19 January 2018

Does jury nullification undermine the rule of law? Or is there a proper place in our criminal justice system for a jury to acquit, not because the jurors believe there is insufficient evidence of a defendant's guilt, but because they believe the underlying law is unconstitutional? The conservative legal writer Mark Pulliam and the libertarian law professor Ilya Somin have been debating these questions this week. Pulliam views jury nullification as "brazen lawlessness and a prescription for arbitrariness." As he puts it, "if a juror (or any other member of the political community) feels that a particular law is unjust—and ...

The Originalist Case for Jury Nullification

Is there a place in our system for a jury to acquit because the jurors believe the underlying law is unconstitutional?

reason.com