“Not Guilty”.
I'm trying to pre-empt my knowledge here.
What if the kid says yeah, he DID have a pocket knife in school, but it was in his knapsack, in his locker and discovered during a "random" search ... which is legal in Pennsylvania ?
The possession may be the violation, but the manner in which it was possessed and discovered is .. imo .. a lousy way to hook a kid into having some kind of punishment foisted upom him.
I would want the possession charge dropped BECAUSE of the manner in which it was learned.
Do I use the words "not guilty" with a great big long explanation (which would mean nothing as far as my wishes to nullify are concerned) or are there other, more legal words that a "juror" uses ?
+1, that’s all you need to or should say. Anything else and you’ll probably trigger a mistrial. Not even to your fellow jurors. Those that know ... will know.