I’ve bee watching the Brooks vs state trial, and before he makes his closing argument, the judge tells him NOT to inform the jury of their power to nullify the law.
In: 20
A jury can technically return any verdict they damn well please, as long as it’s unanimous.
If the jury decides “sure, the defendant definitely committed the crime but *we don’t give a shit* and we’re going to return a unanimous ‘Not Guilty’ verdict anyway”, then they have *nullified* the consequences of that law.
Judges want juries to return the verdict that they “should” return, based on the evidence shown, and they do *not* want juries to just give any old verdict they like. So they absolutely positively do not want the juries to be told that they have that option.
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