Free Republic

Only takes one juror to hang a jury. Let there be an underground movement to pass the word: Get on any Trump jury and hold out for "Not Guilty" at all costs. PASS THE WORD - JUROR NULLIFICATION IN ANY TRUMP TRIAL

<p>CANANDAIGUA — The Phelps man whose trial included protests by gun-rights advocates is going to prison.</p> <p>On Monday in Ontario County Court, Judge Craig Doran sentenced Shane Bennett, 35, to 4 and 1/2 years in prison followed by five years of parole.</p>

Mitch Morrissey tried to imprison activists for passing out jury nullification pamphlets. Last August, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey charged two local activists, Mark Iannicelli and Eric Brandt, with seven felonies each for passing out jury nullification pamphlets at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse. Morrissey continued to pursue those charges even after conceding that such activity is protected by the First Amendment. When I asked Lynn Kimbrough, Morrissey's public information officer, what Iannicelli and Brandt had done that crossed the line from constitutionally protected speech to felonious jury tampering, she refused to say. That's probably because Morrissey had no case, as confirmed...

A funny thing happened on the way to a trial in Missoula County District Court last week. Jurors – well, potential jurors – staged a revolt. They took the law into their own hands, as it were, and made it clear they weren’t about to convict anybody for having a couple of buds of marijuana. Never mind that the defendant in question also faced a felony charge of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs. The tiny amount of marijuana police found while searching Touray Cornell’s home on April 23 became a huge issue for some members of the jury panel. No,...

The August issue of the American Rifleman reports that Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ), Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are promoting legislation under which nameless Federal bureaucrats can place any citizen's name on a "terrorist watchlist," after which it would be illegal for said citizen to buy or possess firearms. Secret courts, Star Chambers ("Court sessions were held in secret, with no indictments, no right of appeal, no juries, and no witnesses"), and bills of attainder are illegal and unconstitutional in this country so, should this law ever go into effect, we will simply not enforce it if we...

Citizens can refuse to enforce laws enacted or supported by the Obama RegimeTop Official Says Feds May Not Process Illegals Referred From Arizona reports that the Obama Administration will now refuse to enforce our country's immigration laws in Arizona. A top Department of Homeland Security official reportedly said his agency will not necessarily process illegal immigrants referred to them by Arizona authorities. ..."ICE has the legal discretion to accept or not to accept persons delivered to it by non-federal personnel," Napolitano said. "It also has the discretion to deport or not to deport persons delivered to it by any government...

The Left has proposed prosecution of former Bush officials for coercive interrogation of terrorists, and Barack Obama has denounced waterboarding and similar techniques as un-American. It turns out, however, that Nancy Pelosi probably knew about and, through silence, consented to the coercive interrogations long ago. Pelosi now finds herself dancing the Nuremberg Trial Four-Step: "It didn't happen/ I didn't know/ I wasn't there/ I was only following orders." It's hard to say it didn't happen when your own party proclaimed so loudly that it did, and it's hard to say you're only following orders when you're Minority Whip and Speaker...

The government will retry a prominent marijuana advocate on cultivation charges even though he faces no punishment if convicted, beyond the one day in jail he's already served, a federal prosecutor said today. Prosecutors decided on a second trial for Ed Rosenthal after a "thorough and careful review,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer... Defense lawyer Shari Greenberger said she would ask Breyer to order the government to reimburse Rosenthal for the time his lawyers spent getting the new charges dismissed.

Last night, during a "Law and Order" episode, the 'judge' said that juror annullment was illegal.

Over the years, I have written a lot on the subject of "Boxing Liberty." Heck, I'm on my "soap box" nearly every week and often write about the ballot box and the cartridge box. Few, however, including me, ever write about our responsibility in the jury box. Let's forget, for a moment, what today's over-zealous and omnipotent judges, prosecutors and lawyers tell us. Instead, let's take a look back at how our law was intended to be administrated and what the roll the citizen was intended to play. In The Federalist Papers No. 62, James Madison admonishes: "It will be...