Via Tim Lynch at Cato blog comes the story of a juror in a cocaine case.
Shortly after deliberations began, the jury sent a note to the judge saying that one of the jurors was concerned about the legitimacy of the law in question. When the judge questioned him, the juror explained (this from the 40 page explanation (pdf) by Judge D.J. Young to justify his own actions):
My question was where, if, . . . as every schoolboy knows, the highest law in the land is the United States Constitution, and if [C]ongress had to go to amend the [C]onstitution in, actually it was ratified in 1919, the 18th Amendment, in order to have the power to ban not interstate commerce but mere possession, where is [Congress‰ authority to ban mere possession of drugs] in the [C]onstitution[?]
Congress is empowered by Article I, in a list of about 17 specific empowerments, I‰m unaware, and it was never made clear to me, where [banning mere possession of drugs] is
authorized in the Constitution.
The judge explained that the juror needed to follow the instructions as to the law provided by the court and apply it to the case. When the juror continued to have difficulty, the judge replaced him.
The defendant was then promptly convicted.
Is this a legitimate reason to remove a juror? Because of his view that drug laws are not constitutional? The judge went on for pages and pages as to why it was important not to have someone like him on a jury.
Here’s the part that made me laugh out loud:
If Taken Seriously, Jury Nullification Threatens to Undermine the Democratic Process and the Rule of Law
If it were taken seriously by mainstream Americans, jury nullification would threaten to unravel the fabric of our democracy. The impropriety of nullification emanates from the notion that ours is ‹a government of laws and not of men.Š … This means simply that no
citizen is above the law, and none is free to make his own law.
And the judge then goes off the deep end.
The notion that nullification will change the law is drivel. Those who would characterize it as a noble form of civil disobedience are deeply delusional.
The judge needs some lessons on the sickness in our democratic process already extant that nullification could potentially cure.