Fully Informed Jury
From Libertarian Wiki
The term fully informed jury refers to a jury knowlegable of its ability and right to practice jury nullification. That is, to decide whether the law itself is valid or being validly applied in a criminal or civil case in addition to deciding based on guilt or innocence.
In practical terms this means that if a jury finds that a law itself is unjust, it can find a defendant not guilty even if by deciding based on the evidence alone the defendant would be found guilty.
Since it takes only one member of a jury dissenting from a guilty finding to result in a hung jury, the presence of just one fully informed member of a jury can insure that justice is done and somebody being tried for a victimless crime is not successfully prosecuted. Juries can therefore serve as a last-ditch protection for individual rights from overzealous prosecutors and lawmakers. However, most jurors are not aware of this right, and most courts will not allow lawyers to mention it in the courtroom. Instructions given to the jury will typically instruct the jury to judge the case based on the evidence alone, but not to judge the law itself.
The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) works to inform members of the public that they have this right. FIJA also works to amend state constitutions so that juries will be informed of this right, although they have had little success in this latter endeavor. Typical FIJA activities have included leafleting outside courthouses. Some of the leaflets produced by FIJA, which you can print on your computer and distribute, can be found here. There have been a few isolated cases where people distributing FIJA literature have faced prosecution for "jury tampering" or similar charges, but these have met with little success and it is legal to inform jurors of their rights so long as one does not attempt to advise jurors how they should decide in a particular case.
FIJA does not take positions on indivudual political issues other than those involving jury rights. However, the fully informed jury concept has a broad appeal to libertarians and to others across the political spectrum concerned with such issues as:
- Gun rights and opposition to gun control
- Motorist and motorcyclist rights
- Legalization of marijuana
- Tax protesters and tax resisters
- Draft resisters
- Activists who engage in civil disobedience
