A Jury’s Right

Your writer Lois Timnick tells a poignant story about her jury duty in the Santa Monica trial of Thomas (Ocean) Harrison for drinking beer and resisting arrest. According to her, members of the jury agreed that Mr. Harrison was technically guilty, and further that they were “sworn to uphold the law.” Hence she says they had to find him guilty--even though they did not think it was a just verdict.

But they were wrong. If they thought justice would have been better served thereby, the jurors could and should have found him innocent, even in defiance of the law.

Last year, six state governors and one state Senate declared Sept. 5 to be “Jury Rights Day,” affirming that jury members have the right to vote their conscience, regardless of the law. Several presidents of the United States and numerous court decisions have also affirmed this right.

This is known as “jury nullification.” Jurors who are aware of the fundamental right of jury nullification are said to be “fully informed.”

Demonstrations to publicize the right of jury nullification took place on Jury Rights Day in front of 200 courthouses across the land. One of these was staged by the Libertarian Party in front of the Santa Monica Superior Courthouse--ironically the very place where Mr. Harrison’s trial later took place.

The right of jury nullification is nothing new. It goes back many centuries in the Anglo-American common law tradition. After all, does not our government supposedly derive its power from the people? Should not the people therefore be the final arbiters of justice?

And yet judges today are in the habit of neglecting to inform juries that they have this right. This unfortunately says a great deal about the kind of society we have become. It is one of the reasons we lead the world in the proportion of our population in prison.

California and every state needs a Fully Informed Jury Amendment, which will require judges to inform juries of the right of jury nullification. As for Mr. Harrison, Ms. Timnick’s excellent article will have eventually served the purpose of “fully informing” him about this issue.

NEAL DONNER

Los Angeles

Editor’s note -- Donner is outreach chairman for the Libertarian Party in Los Angeles County.