Jurors' Handbook... A Citizens Guide to Jury Duty

As recently as 1972, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia said that the jury has an "
unreviewable and irreversible power... to acquit in
disregard of the instructions on the law given by the trial
judge.
Or as this same truth was stated in a earlier decision by
the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Maryland: "We recognize, as appellants urge, the
undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict
is contrary to the law as given by the judge, and contrary to the evidence. This is a power that must exist
as long as we adhere to the general verdict in criminal
cases, for the courts cannot search the minds of the
jurors to find the basis upon which they judge. If the jury
feels that the law under which the defendant is
accused, is unjust, or that exigent circumstances
justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason
which appeals to their logic of passion, the jury has the
power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that
decision."
YOU, as a juror armed with the knowledge of the
purpose of a jury trial, and the knowledge of what your
Rights, powers, and duties really are, can with your
single vote of not guilty nullify or invalidate any law
involved in that case. Because a jury's guilty decision
must be unanimous, it takes only one vote to effectively
nullify a bad "act of the legislature". Your one vote can
"hang" a jury; and although it won't be an acquittal, at
least the defendant will not be convicted of violating an
unjust or unconstitutional law.
The government cannot deprive anyone of "Liberty",
without your consent!

If you feel the statute involved in any criminal case
being tried before you is unfair, or that it infringes upon
the defendant's God-given inalienable or Constitutional
rights, you can affirm that the offending statute is really
no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime; for
no man is bound to obey an unjust command. In other
words, if the defendant has disobeyed some man-made
criminal statute, and the statute is unjust, the defendant
has in substance, committed no crime. Jurors, having
ruled then on the justice of the law involved and finding
it opposed in whole or in part to their own natural
concept of what is basically right, are bound to hold for
the acquittal of said defendant.
It is your responsibility to insist that your vote of not
guilty be respected by all other members of the jury. For
you are not there as a fool, merely to agree with the
majority, but as a qualified judge in your right to see that
justice is done. Regardless of the pressures or abuse
that may be applied to you by any or all members of the
jury with whom you may in good conscience disagree,
you can await the reading of the verdict secure in the
knowledge you have voted your conscience and
convictions, not those of someone else.
So you see, as a juror, you are one of a panel of twelve
judges with the responsibility of protecting all innocent
Americans from unjust laws.