Do you believe the war on drugs is wrong? Does it make you mad to hear about people going to jail for smoking marijuana even though they didn’t hurt anybody? Do you think that there is nothing you can do about it because politicians won’t touch this issue? Instead of waiting for politicians to do something, there is an alternative. This alternative involves jurors in drug cases and defendants who are charged in these cases. In cases having to do with illegal drugs, jurors should vote to find the defendants not guilty on all drug charges. The judge will give you jury instructions that say that jurors are required to find a defendant guilty if the facts show that he or she has broken the law. This is not necessarily true. One of the best kept secrets is something called jury nullification. Jury nullification allows a jury to find a defendant not guilty if the members of the jury believe that the law in question is wrong. If enough juries around America do this, politicians and prosecutors will get the message that the war on drugs is a waste of time and that you can’t legislate morality. In order for this idea to work most effectively, defendants also need to do something differently than they do now. Instead of making deals with prosecutors, they should take their cases to trial. If more people take drug cases to trial, prosecutors will have to spend more time on these cases, so they won’t be as quick to prosecute somebody just for possession of marijuana. If enough jurors use jury nullification, defendants should do fine.
Tags: jury nullification, marijuana, possession, war on drugs
