Jury nullification persists but jurors now exceed legal authority.

Evidence

Although the province of the jury diminished when judges were assigned the responsibility to determine the applicable law, the change has not altogether eliminated jury nullification. Community sentiment still may play a part in jury verdicts. During the 1920s, juries often refused to convict ordinary citizens who had run afoul of the Prohibition laws. And throughout the first half of the twentieth century, segregated juries in the South frequently acquitted whites accused of violence against blacks. Yet in refusing to convict those guilty of violating criminal law, contemporary 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…, 870

Categorization

• XREF: Segregated Southern juries’ acquittals of white violence ties to civil-rights era equal-protection doctrine covered in the course. — connects to: Jury nullification persists even though voters exceed their legal authority — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 870; Jurors’ sense of legal duty curbs nullification even against their views — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1417; Because juries create no precedent, they can bend the law without breaking it. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1448
• QUESTION: The shift in when nullification is viewed as legitimate (pre-independence heroic vs. contemporary lawless) is worth probing.

Broader Connections

• Jurors’ sense of legal duty curbs nullification even against their views #complicates (0.82) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1417
• Because juries create no precedent, they can bend the law without breaking it. #expands (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1448
• Jury nullification persists even though voters exceed their legal authority #qualifies (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 870