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.
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The jury is meant to make a decision based on evidence and the law.
However, the jury’s decision is unaccountable to any authority.
So the jury could make a decision based on any other basis. Hyptohetically, they might: disagree with the law, ignore evidence that is clearly true, be prejudiced, be extra compassionate, or choose based on the flip of a coin.
The jury is therefore ‘nullifying’ the law if they do this, rather than considering matters of evidence and law.
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This could arguably be a good thing, for instance, if a law is unjust, a jury can refuse to enforce it.
Or it could be a bad thing, for instance, if a jury is racist, they could convict someone just because they want to remove people of the defendant’s race from society.
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