By Alan Chwick & Joanne Eisen
New York –-(Ammoland.com)- With Jury Rights Day just around the corner on September 5, it is a good time to reflect upon a Jury’s Duty.
Our Founding Fathers, in all their wisdom, gave us a Constitution with layers of safeguards, so that if we erred, we could correct the error, peaceably – without a shot being fired.
One of these very important layers is Jury Nullification. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were very strong advocates of Jury Nullification.
They stated:
“It is not only [the juror’s] right, but his duty…to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.” (John Adams, America’s second President; 1771)
“It would be an absurdity for jurors to be required to accept the judge’s view of the law, against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.” (John Adams)
“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” (Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Thomas Paine; 1789)
“The juries [are] our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it.” (Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval; 1816. ME 15:35)
Even the First Chief Justice of the U.S. John Jay, in 1789, chimed in on this issue with, “The jury has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.”
Lastly, and most succinctly, Alexander Hamilton, in 1804, said that, “Jurors should acquit, even against the judge’s instruction… if exercising their judgment with discretion and honesty, they have a clear conviction the charge of the court is wrong.”
Simply stated, from the time of the signing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215, and right up to the present, We the People, when in the role as juror, wield immense power over a case’s facts and the laws that are in question. The power of the Juror is greater than that of the courtroom judge, the legislators who wrote the law, or even that of the President of the United States. The axe the Jury wields is NULLIFICATION, and the Jurors do not have to obey the courtroom judge. You can not be intimidated by the courtroom, the judge, or the venue.
If punishments are too harsh, if the laws are flawed, or if a government is running rampant over the populace, the juror’s power to nullify can easily stand in peaceful opposition. Jury nullification has protected our freedom of speech and even helped to overturned prohibition.
(See Niagara Falls Reporter, “JURY NULLIFICATION HAS LONG HISTORY OF RIGHTING WRONG LAWS”, By Frank Parlato (2012), https://goo.gl/fk8BXB )
Few people understand Jury Nullification, as it is not taught in school. Grade school teachers, high school teachers, and even college professors neglect to explain exactly why the jury system is so important to our legal system. They neglect to explain why the jury system is even written into the Bill of Rights. They neglect to talk about the powerful feature of Jury Nullification. They neglect to inform jurors that they are not required to follow the judge’s directions, or even follow the law.
Because of this pervasive ignorance, the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA; FIJA.org) flyer complains, “Too often, jurors actually end up apologizing to the person they’ve convicted – or to the community for acquitting when the evidence clearly established guilt.”
On the other side of the coin, the pervasive ignorance, of the jurors, is used by our leaders so that they can more easily manipulate and control us where we are most powerful, thus abating the power of nullification from us.
We, as gun owners, are constantly under siege by a plethora of legal attacks. Whether it be self-defense, stand-your-ground, how many bullets can you carry, what guns are good, what guns are bad, or any other gun issue, we must expend our energies on a multitude of fronts. Yes, there will always be laws created and that are cases brought to court where there is a need for individuals to say, “No, Stop!” And, We the People must learn that we can say “No” without question or punishment. The method…JURY NULLIFICATION.
On closing, I’d like to leave you with the words of U.S. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone on the Juror’s Duty:
“If a juror feels that the statute involved in any criminal offence is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant’s natural God-given unalienable or Constitutional rights, then it is his duty to affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime at all, for no one is bound to obey an unjust law.” (Emphasis add) ~ (U.S. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone, 1941-1946)
About the Authors:
Mr. Alan J. Chwick received a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany in Business Administration and Data Processing, as well as an A.S. from Nassau Community College in Accounting. Alan has been engaged full-time since 1975 in the private sector as an Independent IT & Facilities Consultant in Freeport, New York (The Complete Machine, Inc.). He has been involved with firearms much of his life, and is currently the Managing Coach of the Freeport Junior Club (FJC) at the Freeport NY Revolver & Rifle Association. Alan is extremely active in defending the Second Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights in the political arena in Nassau County and the State of New York. He is responsible, with much aid of attorney Robert Firriolo, for changing the face of field preemption in NYS, with the legal victory against Nassau County (Citation: Chwick v. Mulvey, 81 A.D.3d 161, 915 N.Y.S.2d 578 (2nd Dept. 2010)). Additionally, Alan was a strong voice in changing NYS PL 265.20.7e, to permit 14-20 year-olds to handle a firearm during training. At the Freeport Junior Club, with the help of Coach Edward Botsch and an excellent staff of Range Officers, Alan teaches firearm safety and use, competitive shooting and good sportsmanship to youths aged 5 to 21 years-old.
Dr. Joanne D. Eisen received her B.A. from Queens College, City University of New York, in Chemistry/Biology. She earned her D.D.S. degree from New York University in 1966. Since then, Joanne has been engaged full-time in the private practice of dentistry in Old Bethpage, New York. She has been a long-time advocate and prolific writer in defense of American’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
The current primary focus of the writers’ research is the importance of the Second Amendment to the preservation of our American Constitutional liberties.
To contact the authors:
- Dr. Eisen – JoanneDEisen@cs.com
- Mr. Chwick – AJChwick@iNCNF.org