As a rule of thumb, if you are ever given jury duty, never admit to familiarity with jury nullification. Under typical circumstances, attorneys and judges will exclude you from a jury if you so much as mention it.
If, and it’s a big if, you wish to use your authority and responsibility of jury nullification, by voting “not guilty”, and are asked by other jurors why you did so, you should still *not* use the phrase “jury nullification”, or it may be used to relieve you of jury duty and replace you with an alternate juror. (The excuse will be that you have instructed other jurors about a matter of law, which is forbidden, as you are not an officer of the court.)
Instead, while being honest, you can state that you believe the law is inappropriate, or that it is being applied incorrectly or injudiciously. Which, in effect, are the *rationales* of jury nullification. And, importantly, as such, they are not adequate from dismissing you from the jury.
That is, you can practice but you cannot preach.
Ironically, even among the firmest of believers in the principal of jury nullification, the vast majority of the time it will never be an issue, because not only is the defendant guilty as blue blazes, but guilty of violating a real and important law, and you truly believe that they should spend a long, long time in prison.
And if one other person on the jury wants to find them “not guilty”, you will think they have lost their mind.
This is not the case in Tennessee. In Tennessee a criminal court jury is told that they are to judge the “law” and the “facts”. They are entitled to overrule the law. I believe Tennessee is the only state where juries are told it is their duty to nullify the law if required to do justice.
I’m my experience jury nullification has not been a problem in Tennessee. If the government is concerned that the “law” does not reach a just result it should not bring the charges, instead of trying to force a jury to follow the law.
This is not the case in Tennessee. In Tennessee a criminal court jury is told that they are to judge the “law” and the “facts”. They are entitled to overrule the law. I believe Tennessee is the only state where juries are told it is their duty to nullify the law if required to do justice.
I’m my experience jury nullification has not been a problem in Tennessee. If the government is concerned that the “law” does not reach a just result it should not bring the charges, instead of trying to force a jury to follow the law.