In Defense of Jury Nullification
"First of all, I want to thank you for inviting me to join your conversation about Bill Stuntz's new, posthumous book The Collapse of American Criminal Justice. As a friend of Bill's, I'm not completely objective. But I couldn't agree more that this is a hugely important book. One of the most remarkable attributes of The Collapse of American Criminal Justice is the counter intuitive solutions it offers to familiar problems.
My favorite example is jury nullification--the decision by a jury to acquit a criminal defendant even if the defendant appears to have committed the crime. Although jury nullification is highly unpopular in most circles, Stuntz argues it actually was once a great virtue of American criminal justice, and that it would be a natural part of a healthier criminal justice system--a system that didn't incarcerate blacks at highly disproportionate rates. Let me explain." - Ta-Nehisi Coates, read the rest.
My favorite example is jury nullification--the decision by a jury to acquit a criminal defendant even if the defendant appears to have committed the crime. Although jury nullification is highly unpopular in most circles, Stuntz argues it actually was once a great virtue of American criminal justice, and that it would be a natural part of a healthier criminal justice system--a system that didn't incarcerate blacks at highly disproportionate rates. Let me explain." - Ta-Nehisi Coates, read the rest.
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