Prismattic comments on Politics is the Mind-Killer - Less Wrong

71 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 18 February 2007 09:23PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (210)

Sort By: Old

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Prismattic 27 January 2012 03:53:12AM *  2 points [-]

It's probably worth noting, when someone brings up jury nullifcation, that historically, at least in the US, the largest source of jury nullification cases was all-white juries refusing to convict actually-guilty white defendants of crimes against black victims.

Comment author: wedrifid 27 January 2012 04:15:31AM 0 points [-]

It's probably worth noting, when someone brings up jury nullifcation, that historically, at least in the US, the largest source of jury nullification cases was all-white juries refusing to convict actually-guilty white defendants of crimes against black victims.

Who gets to choose that such a jury is null? It seems rather exploitable!

Comment author: Prismattic 27 January 2012 04:39:23AM 3 points [-]

Who gets to choose that such a jury is null?

I can't parse this.

It sounds like you may be misunderstanding the term "jury nullification". It does not mean overturning the decision of a jury. It means the members of a jury choosing not to follow the guidelines of the law in reaching a decision.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 27 January 2012 09:04:44PM 1 point [-]

Do you have a citation for this? I've seen the claim before but I have't seen any data backing this up.

Comment author: TimS 27 January 2012 09:20:54PM 2 points [-]

I don't know whether "largest" is justified, but it seems hard to doubt that racial nullification is a significant part of the history of jury nullification in the US. Wikipedia links sources that suggest that Prohibition and the Fugitive Slave Laws also were major sources of nullification.

Comment author: gwern 27 January 2012 11:39:40PM 1 point [-]

And let us not forget the very honorable origin of jury nullification, which established American freedom of the press: the Zenger trial.