JURY NULLIFICATION...

What it is...

"Jury nullification" occurs when a jury returns a verdict of "not guilty" despite its belief that the defendant is guilty of the violation charged.  The jury, in effect, nullifies a law that it believes is either immoral or wrongly applied to the defendant whose fate they are charged with deciding.

Where it comes from...

Though jury nullification is a basic Constitutional right, state and federal courts unanimously hold that a trial judge is not allowed to instruct the jurors on their power to return a verdict of "not guilty" in the interests of justice.  If you're the sort of person who reads case law, here's one (of many)... United States v. Manning, 79 F.3d 212, 219 (1st Cir. 1996) ("a district judge may not instruct the jury as to its power to nullify").

Here's what 3 founding father-types had to say...

John Jay, the 1st Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court said: "It is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts; it is, on the other hand, presumed that courts are the best judges of law. But still both objects are within your power of decision." [emphasis added] "...you have a right to take it upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy".

John Adams, our 2^nd President, said of a juror: "It is not only his right but his duty...to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court."

:Thomas Jefferson said, "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."