Quote:
Originally Posted by ZOANAS
"Well, your honor, we have laws, and a Legislature that writes those laws. If we don't like the death penalty, we should take our case to them. The jury box isn't the place to legislate." .
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If you read up on the "fully informed jury," you will find that a jury can do just that, override any law. In effect, they are legislating or at least vetoing existing legislation.
Let's take one example in point: During the civil War era, slaves were escaping west. They ended up Mid Western "free states." Laws were vague at best about harboring slaves, etc. When the issue did come up and was treated as a crime, sympathetic jurors refused to convict even if evidence was solid. They did this because overall the most of these states could not agree to the fact that slavery was legal in other states. Using examples from Ben Franklin and before, the jurors knew they could not be forced to convict against their own moralistic stand. A jury cannot be tried for any crime or offense if they rule against existing law for whatever reason or belief. A jury is in essence, above the law.
That is the best I can do at the moment to explain the concept. You bring this up in a court and you will be excused. I suppose the more ignorant you appear about all this, the scarier you are to the judge and attorneys. That would be my tact.
Here is some good reading:
http://www.levellers.org/jrp/orig/jrp.jurquotes.htm