<h4><img src="images/stories/OAKI-logo.png" border="0" align="left" />Excerpt from an Oak Initiative article by Lloyd Phillips:</h4>
<p>While jury nullification of laws was not new, it had never been accomplished on such a large scale as it was as the result of the Second Great Awakening in the United States. The principle of jury nullification compels citizen juries to rule on both the facts of a case, and the validity of the law being used in the case. The practice of jury nullification in judicial precedents comes through English common law dating back to the Magna Carta and before. It was widely understood that the power of citizen juries was to require the government to prove its case against a defendant, as well as the validity of the law in question. Without the leadership of the church and the enlightenment of the juries, this could not have had such effect.</p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><em>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."</em> ~U.S. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone, 1941-46</p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><em>If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by a judge, and contrary to the evidence.</em> ~4th Circuit Court of Appeals, US v Moylan, 1969</p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><em>I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform them.</em> ~Thomas Jefferson</p>
<p>Jury nullification was a common practice in our nation from the ratification of the Constitution until 1895 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries <em>were not to be informed </em>of principle of nullification by defense attorneys, nor were judges required to tell them about it. While the right remains, it has almost been forgotten since that time.</p>
<p>It has been confirmed a number of times, and since that time it has become almost a safeguard that is hidden from the people. If a great treasure is hidden it cannot be used, but there seems to be a change in the wind.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theoakinitiative.org/oak-leaf-27">Read entire post at Oak Initiative &gt;&gt;&gt;</a></p>