Such power in the hands of the common man could be dangerous, but it also could be liberating.
Something to watch
They already have that power as it has been used by black jurors for decades, but this law would tell them that its OK to use it.
If it does pass it Should give the jurors three possible verdicts that they can choose from :
Guilty, guilty but nullified, or innocent.
We need to be careful. Nullification of a law does not necessarily mean that a law if wrong or bad. It can simply imply, when an innocent verdict is reached, that the law shouldn’t apply given to the accused.
For instance, if a person were ticketed for running a red light in order to get out of the way of an ambulance, they would indeed be guilty of violating the traffic law. But the law should not apply if the motorist was also yielding to an emergency vehicle by law. There are more examples of this than you might think.
Another example: A soldier in the process of moving had a gun in his car to transport it. The gun was legal when he originally lived there, but while on active duty was made illegal. He was arrested on weapons violations when the officer checked his trunk. Per current law, what he did was illegal. But his circumstance should not be subject to the law and only jury nullification would exonerate him.
We’d like to believe that these 1,500 page bills would include some provision for every conceivable circumstance. But if this were the case, there would be no need for “stand you ground laws” as it has always been legal to defend your life. Since the details were getting muddy and prosecutors were prosecuting in grey areas, citizens demanded some protection for prosecutors by enacting laws that prevented prosecutors from pestering otherwise innocent victims.