Jurors’ sense of legal duty curbs nullification even against their views

Evidence

Yet in refusing to convict those guilty of violating criminal law, contem- porary jurors exceed their legal authority, and the recognition of their legal obligation to apply the law may lead jurors to do so even when they disagree with the law. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1417

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to course themes of legal obligation versus individual conscience and the rule of law. — connects to: Jury nullification persists but jurors now exceed legal authority. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 870; Jury nullification persists even though voters exceed their legal authority — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 870; Jurors displace guilt onto the legal system’s decisions — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2001 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Jurors displace guilt onto the legal system’s decisions #complicates (0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2001
• Capital juries force untrained citizens into life-or-death moral decisions #complicates (0.90)
• Individual juror decisions do not simply aggregate into deliberating jury outcomes #complicates (0.90) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 913
• Jurors vote for death by believing their verdicts are merely provisional statements. #complicates (0.90)
• Jury nullification persists even though voters exceed their legal authority #complicates (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 870
• Jurors reframe capital sentencing as rules answering to avoid moral guilt #complicates (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2003
• Jurors feel trapped by sentencing rules into against-judgment verdicts #qualifies (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2000
• Capital trials are deliberately structured to let jurors avoid moral responsibility #complicates (0.80)
• Jurors displace moral responsibility onto incomprehensible sentencing instructions. #complicates (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1995