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So youve received a noticeto report to jury duty.

What?

Youre trying to get out of it?

Too busy?

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At the risk of sounding like a herb,being on a jury can be one of the

greatest experiences of citizenship.

As a voter youre one of millions.As a juror you are one of twelve,with power over someones life.

But there is one thinga jury wont be told,by neither the people,

the defense, nor the judge.

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In 1734, John Zenger printed an article condemningthe governor of New York. Colonial law prohibitedpublications that did not meet government approval,

and Zenger was arrested for seditious libel.

Zenger did not deny publishing the oending work.During his trial, the judge instructed the jury thatthis admission was evidence enough to convict.

In fact, the jury disregarded the judges instructionsand found Zenger not guilty, based on what theydeemed to be an unjust law.

This landmark case for freedom of thepress is one of the earliest and best-knownexamples ofjury nullifcation:

When the jury returns with averdict of not guilty despiteevidence establishing that thedefendant is guilty as charged.

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Judges are not required to inform you of jurynullication power. In many jurisdictions it is

forbidden for attorneys to advise a jury of thepossibility, and jurors must learn of it throughextra-legal sources.

Fear of jury anarchy guides such restrictions,and there are examples of nullication goneawry (e.g., racist juries refusing to convict white

supremacists for killing black people).

A jury is designed to protect society fromlawbreakers, but it is also a means toprotect society from bad law.

A jury can nullify a law that it believesunjust or wrongly applied to a defendant.

Jury independence is your power to judgethe law as well as the evidence, and to vote

on a verdict according to conscience.

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So when should this special power be used?

In all criminal drug cases.

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Source: New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, via: Marijuana Arrest Crusadeby Professor Harry Levine, Queens College, City University of New York: bit.ly/isRmUy

And shame on you,Michael Bloomberg.*

If asked to serve on a jury deliberatinga violation of state or federal drug laws,

we will vote to acquit, regardless of theevidence presented. Save for a prosecutionin which acts of violence or intended violence arealleged, we willto borrow Justice Harry Blackmunsmanifesto against the death penaltyno longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer canwe collaborate with a government that uses nonviolentdrug oenses to ll prisons with its poorest, most

damaged and most desperate citizens.

*Authors note: I confronted Bloomberg once at a Gracie Mansion BBQ, where I asked him to reconcile his administration of record marijuanaarrests with his own admission of personal use and enjoyment. He hemmedand hawed. I asked why he wouldnt arrest himself for the past use, and he

said Thats not how the law works. I said, So, really youre just sayingI got away with it. At that point he said, You and I have nothing incommon, and walked away from me. True story. RC

In 2008, the writers of HBOs The Wire wrote an essayin Time Magazine stating,

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The defendants apartment was raided,police discovered marijuana plants?

The prosecutions case is airtight?

The defendant even confessed?

NOT GUILTY!

If you object to how drug use andaddiction are treated as crimes, ratherthan as medical or liberty issues, thenjury duty is one of the most powerfullegal weapons you have against theDrug War.

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No matter what the evidence,it is within your rights

to declare the defendants

of non-violent drug charges

The defendant sold an envelope of

cocaine to an undercover ocer?

On video?! Its pretty much a wrap?

NOT GUILTY!NOT GUILTY!

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Thats All!

The fact that there is widespread existence of thejurys prerogative, and approval of its existence asa necessary counter to case-hardened judges andarbitrary prosecutors, does not establish as animperative that the jury must be informed bythe judge of that power.

UNITED STATES v. DOUGHERTY (1972)

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICTOF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT. 473 F.2d 1113 (1972)

About the author...

Ricardo Corts is an author & illustrator of books,includingGo the Fuck to Sleep, I Dont Want to Blow You Up!,

Its Just a Plant, and the forthcomingCofee, Coca & Cola.

Rmcortes.com