Criminal Law: An Overview
§ 1.01 Nature of “Criminal
Law”
[A] Crimes
[1] Comparison
to Civil Wrongs
Are crimes really just
whatever legislatures say they are? That
doesn’t seem like a satisfying answer.
Criminal law is public law.
[2] Classification
of Crimes
[B] Principles of
Criminal Responsibility
§ 1.02 Proving Guilt at the
Trial
[A] Right to Trial
by Jury
[1] In
General
[2] Scope
of the Right
[B] Burden of
Proof
[C] Jury
Nullification
[1] The
Issue: In General
The jury is totally
secret. It doesn’t have to explain
itself. An acquittal from a jury is
absolutely, positively final. Therefore,
the jury can always acquit the defendant for any reason without being subject
to sanction or appeal. Should juries
have this power?
[2] The
Debate
Advocates say that jury
nullification protects against convictions that are legal but not moral. Critics say that juries ought not to use
nullification, because in practice it has had more negative effects than positive
effects and because it results in the jury breaking their oath.
[3] The
Law
Jury nullification can come
up as a matter of what instructions the jury should receive. The judge doesn’t need to inform the jury of
their nullification power.
The defense could ask to have
jury nullification mentioned as an option in the instructions, but it’s very
rare that this move would succeed.
The prosecution could try to
get a juror discharged if there’s evidence they will try to nullify. The court must give the juror the benefit of
the doubt because it mustn’t intrude upon the deliberative process.
[4] Race-Based
Nullification