Posted on 07/25/2017 6:25:02 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
Railroad — to convict with undue haste and by means of false charges or insufficient evidence; to push through hastily or without due consideration
Before jury selection began Monday in the retrial of four defendants in the 2014 Bunkerville standoff at the Bundy ranch federal Judge Gloria Navarro granted a prosecution motion to bar presentation of evidence “supporting jury nullification.” In April, in the first of three scheduled trials for the Bunkerville defendants —charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, extortion, assault and impeding federal officers — ended in a mistrial. The jury found only two of six people on trial guilty of some charges but deadlocked on the others. The jurors agreed to convict on only 10 of the 60 charges brought. None of the conspiracy charges stuck.
The standoff occurred after armed Bureau of Land Management agents attempted to roundup Bundy’s cattle after he had refused for 20 years to pay grazing fees in the Gold Butte area. The BLM said he owed $1 million in fees and penalties. Faced with armed protesters the BLM agents eventually released the cattle and left to avoid potential bloodshed. Two more trials are pending, with Cliven Bundy and his four sons scheduled to be the last. Most defendants have been jailed without bail for a year and half.
Two of Bundy’s sons, who had been arrested on separate but similar charges of illegally occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge to protest the jailing of father and son ranchers under a terrrorism law for letting fires get out of control and burn a few acres of federal public land, were acquitted of those charges this past fall by a jury, along with their co-defendants. In mid-June the prosecution filed a motion asking the judge to bar the jurors in the current trial in Las Vegas from ever even hearing certain so-called state of mind arguments — arguments that the defendants felt justified to show up and protest the confiscation of Bundy’s cattle because of abusive use of force by law enforcement and that they were simply exercising their First and Second Amendment rights.
Navarro noted in her ruling Monday that in the first trial she had rejected the Bill Rights arguments and that would stand for this trial. “The Court also rejected Defendants’ proposed instructions on the First and Second Amendment because they are not legally cognizable defenses, or in other words, the law does not recognize these Amendments as legal defenses to the crimes charged.” (navarro ruling) A rather convoluted argument, but what else would one expect from those who see their jobs as enforcing laws rather than upholding rights.
The Bill of Rights were added to the Constitution in order to spell out certain inalienable rights that Congress must not trample with its laws.
First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech… or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Second Amendment: “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
But those are not defenses against laws prohibiting behavior that causes federal officers to feel threatened.
Navarro quoted from a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the topic of jury nullification:
Jury nullification occurs when a jury acquits a defendant, even though the government proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt… Juries do not have a right to nullify, and courts have no corresponding duty to ensure that juries are able to exercise this power, such as by giving jury instructions on the power to nullify…
On the contrary, “courts have the duty to forestall or prevent [nullification], whether by firm instruction or admonition or… dismissal of an offending juror,” because “it is the duty of juries in criminal cases to take the law from the court, and apply that law to the facts as they find them to be from the evidence.” Juries are just rubber-stamps.
Navarro concluded, “The Court will not permit argument, evidence, or testimony regarding Defendants’ beliefs about the constitution as such beliefs are irrelevant and a possible jury nullification attempt.”
The concept of jury nullification dates to colonial days and is widely taught in journalism schools, because it involved printer John Peter Zinger who was indicted for criminal libel against the colonial governor and tried in 1735. His attorney Andrew Hamilton offered as a defense that what was printed was true, even though under the law truth was not a defense but rather a confirmation of guilt.
The judge at Zenger’s trial ruled that Hamilton could not present evidence of the truth of the printed statements. “The law is clear that you cannot justify a libel,” the judge said. “The jury may find that Zenger printed and published those papers, and leave to the Court to judge whether they are libelous.”
Here is a portion of Hamilton’s closing argument: It is natural, it is a privilege, I will go farther, it is a right, which all free men claim, that they are entitled to complain when they are hurt. They have a right publicly to remonstrate against the abuses of power in the strongest terms, to put their neighbors upon their guard against the craft or open violence of men in authority, and to assert with courage the sense they have of the blessings of liberty, the value they put upon it, and their resolution at all hazards to preserve it as one of the greatest blessings heaven can bestow…
The loss of liberty, to a generous mind, is worse than death. And yet we know that there have been those in all ages who for the sake of preferment, or some imaginary honor, have freely lent a helping hand to oppress, nay to destroy, their country… This is what every man who values freedom ought to consider. He should act by judgment and not by affection or self-interest; for where those prevail, no ties of either country or kindred are regarded; as upon the other hand, the man who loves his country prefers its liberty to all other considerations, well knowing that without liberty life is a misery…
But to conclude: The question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. No!
It may in its consequence affect every free man that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty. And I make no doubt but your upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempt of tyranny, and by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right to liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power (in these parts of the world at least) by speaking and writing truth.
The jury quickly returned with a verdict of not guilty.
Talking about Jury Nullification in court is a great way to get a contempt charge and jail time.
Navarro quoted from a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the topic of jury nullification:
Jury nullification occurs when a jury acquits a defendant, even though the government proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt… Juries do not have a right to nullify, and courts have no corresponding duty to ensure that juries are able to exercise this power, such as by giving jury instructions on the power to nullify…
On the contrary, “courts have the duty to forestall or prevent [nullification], whether by firm instruction or admonition or… dismissal of an offending juror,” because “it is the duty of juries in criminal cases to take the law from the court, and apply that law to the facts as they find them to be from the evidence.” Juries are just rubber-stamps.
Yes, We the People are just cattle to be manipulated into making whatever case against ourselves the PTB want us to. To keep us within the illusion that we are a goverment OF, By and For the People.
The Bill of Rights, plural. *ARE* is the proper word to use. The Bill, singular *IS* would be the proper word to use.
Yes, that is how our masters (betters) look at us.
It was once settled law. But our betters believe we are their subjects.
exculpatory
adj. applied to evidence which may justify or excuse an accused defendant’s actions, and which will tend to show the defendant is not guilty or has no criminal intent.
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Yes, she wants to win the case at any cost to credibility of court. Or according to the agenda she was told to pursue.
...........this is one complaint I have about Sessions. Up until noon on January 20, these were Obama’s prosecutors.
Now, they are Sessions. He has the power to do anything he wants up to and including replacing these prosecutors with some that are not so far left.
I would prefer he just drop the whole case but minimally he could rein it all in.
Circus, of course.
The PEOPLE are the final arbiters of the Law, for it is them that govt derives its being.
We the People have as much Right vs validity, nay, MORE so, than the Courts.
> Juries do not have a right to nullify
Citizens have a right to a trial by a jury of their peers, not a trail by a judge. The judge is a referee. If the jury decides that a law is unjust or being unjustly applied that is their decision.
Misleading headline.
Any opinions about jury nullification are not evidence, nor are the basis for those opinions.
That is a lie!
Jury nullification is not the evidence it refers to.
The evidence is the facts related to abuse by the Federal Agents and the questions about the investigation concerning them. I posted 3 articles related to this today. 2 from the Oath Keeper sight and 1 from another source. Each has details the others do not have.
I understand that Jury Nullification is not accepted by many Judges as a valid legal concept.
“That is a lie! “
Correct.
But according to the 9th Circus, we as jurors don’t have that power, only the judges have the right to decide.
Headshake.
“The Bill of Rights, plural. *ARE* is the proper word to use.”
Nope. The subject is “Bill,” singular. The prepositional phrase “of Rights” describes the Bill.
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