questions on jury nullification
... Question: Does the practice of jury nullification harm the legal system by introducing personal opinion into law? It is important to look at the role that a jury plays in the legal system. The jury can be more than just a group of common people and actually act as a filtering agent in deciding the outcomes of cases. In a sense, because of jury nullification, the jury can help decide if the laws that are already established are executed or not. The practice of jury nullification looks at law as a dependent variable. The ideas of the society and jury help to decide what laws are enforced. ... For example, there has been heated public disagreement about the new laws of medicinal marijuana; because the jury has the right to use their opinion when deciding verdicts, what was once a sure fire win for the prosecution may now not even get tried. In the case of medicinal marijuana in California, Assistant District Attorney Carol Shipley says, “We look at each case individually, but if were convinced a jury wouldnt convict, we may decide not to prosecute The idea of some people getting prosecuted while others walk free on the same crime has only made the public more upset and confused about some laws. ... Jury nullification clouds the decision making process by introducing a grey area into verdicts. ... The guilty defendant could then be freed because the jury sympathizes with him instead of what the evidence shows.