Civil disobedience and cynicism

[warinbear]

I'm finding some interesting tidbits as I slowly expand my online reading, which is happening mostly on Facebook. Today I came across this article about a legal defense strategy that basically involves telling the jury "I know it was against the law, but it was something that I just had to do," and hoping that jury agrees with you

Comments

[azaz_al]

I think jury nullification is a legit strategy, especially when you remember the point of the American justice system was to set up a system guaranteed to ensure no innocent people ever were sent to jail rather than one that ensured all guilty people were properly and thouroughly punished. It was (and is, I hope) considered a much greater crime to even entertain the possibility that someone innocent should be punished than the opposite.

So democracy would then indicate that if a jury of one's peers does not think one is guilty, one is, by definition, innocent and should not be punished. As judgy as most people are these days, I think that's probably pretty rare.