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It's this simple: as a juror, undre the law, you can vote "not guilty" for any reason, or no reason at all. You may not be carrying out your moral duty as a juror, but it's not illegal. I say that in the sense that a not guity verdict cannot be overturned because the jury disregarded evidence. When you vote, you vote up or down, no reason to get into the "why".

If it is a tax evasion case, and the defense claims that the income tax ammendment was never ratified, and you agree, then you may consider voting not guilty. In the strictest sense, this isn't the purpose of a jury. The jury finds facts. But, as has been said here, you can do what you want. Now, technically, if the defense doesn't raise the issue, it may be improper for you to consider your belief about the ratification of the income tax ammendment, becaues that's a preconceived bias. You are supposed to be free from those. Arguably, that's a legal fiction.

Either way, you can vote, guilty or not, and you are not expected to offer any explaination.

Either way, you can vote guilty or not, and you are not expected to offer any explanation.

Not necessarily. In the federal grand jury case in which I was a juror, following our *No bill* of a defendant who was a prisoner at a federal prison, who had been charged with *crimes* [violations of prison rules] for fighting back during a murder attempt on his life, shortly after he had filed a lawsuit in which he named the prison's warden as complicit in felony criminality, we were individually polled as to our *no true bill* and as to *whether we realized the consequences* by the judge. In my case, I told the judge that I expected that the consequences would probably mean another murder attempt against the defendant, and that if successful, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility should then consider our Assistant US Attorney as a probable criminal accomplice for charges that included a possible death penalty, as well as face a disbarment investigation for having solicited perjury in the judge's courtroom.

I didn't get a Christmas card from the fella that year, nor since.

-archy-/-