Ohio! Citizens of the heartland, ye shall read this here thread!

[IronWing]

The overall impact of nullification (when coupled with appeals and the exclusion of double jeopardy) is to curtail aggressive prosecution. This is a good thing. [edit: Your argument boils down to: nullification is bad because evil people can use it for evil. Well, good people can use it for good. Outlawing it won't stop evil people from trying to use it for evil, while it could largely curtail good people from using it for good.]

Furthermore, there is no good reason to keep juries of peers if nullification is not a desired option. If every jury must follow the law strictly in spite of their opinions of the justice of the law then it is much more appropriate to use expert juries or simply go straight to appeals court (or an inquisitorial system) and let a panel of judges decide. And even then there is NO way to avoid the possibility of nullification. (I actually support introducing the option of an inquisitorial style trial by jury of experts - at the discretion of the defendant.)

My argument isn't that bad people will do bad things with jury nullification. My argument is that jury nullification renders the Constitution meaningless. With nullification, jurors take it upon themselves to be unelected lawmakers, making law on the fly. In the trial phase of a proceeding jurors are supposed to strictly apply the law to the facts of the case and determine if the prosecution has met the burden of proof. In the penalty phase, jurors need to weigh the justice of a proposed penalty (which is why I am opposed to mandatory sentencing).

 

[jackschmittusa]

Sinsear

Teabagger = gay?

 

[nonlnear]

My argument isn't that bad people will do bad things with jury nullification. My argument is that jury nullification renders the Constitution meaningless.

I like, where this is going...

With nullification, jurors take it upon themselves to be unelected lawmakers, making law on the fly.

It does not allow jurors to make laws on the fly, but only to repeal them - and temporarily at that. While the binary nature of a jury verdict may create them impression that the two powers are comparable they are not. This is the grand deception of the statists who dominate discussion of social issues: that the role of deciding is the only kind of authority that matters, thereby drawing an equivalence between the power to innovate new chains (laws) and the power to remove them. This is simply not the case. These two powers are radically different both in scope and in general effect.

In the trial phase of a proceeding jurors are supposed to strictly apply the law to the facts of the case and determine if the prosecution has met the burden of proof.

Really? If this were truly the ONLY function of a jury then trial by a jury of one's peers simply makes no sense. A jury of peers is derived from traditions of common law which admit the possibility of uncodified law, or at least uncodified rights and privileges.

 

[piasabird]

I think in state government more power needs to be given to counties. There needs to be a balance of power between Counties and Cities. Large Cities should not have the power to rule all the counties in the state simply based on high population of cities. The counties should rule the state not the overpopulated cities.

I also think that on the state level states should be limited to a maximum number of representatives. There are just too many of them. All we have now is a system where we have too many federal employees. I think we should limit members of the house of representatives to 3-5 reps per state at maximum. No 400 representatives. We just have too many that we dont need.

 

[Wheezer]

You know I took the time to read this, and I am all for limited Federal Government and allow the states more control over themselves...but Jim Traficant?..that's the best they can fucking do is Jim Traficant?

For Christ sake......put aside the fact he did time in prison....at least get someone that knows how to properly wear a rug.

 

[NeoV]

Ohio's proud congressmen - Jim Trafficant ( a reality show waiting to happen ), and Dennis Kucinich

/facepalm