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Liberty Lifestyle: The People’s Power of Jury Nullification
The fine line between law and justice. The problem for the printer was that under the English common law at the time, truth wasn’t considered a defense against the charge of seditious libel. The judge instructed jurors to decide whether Zenger had published the material, not whether the law was fair. Zenger’s attorney, Andrew Hamilton, appealed to the jury: “The question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. No! It may in its consequence affect every free man that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty.” Even though the publication was acknowledged, the jury returned a not guilty verdict. Jury nullification is one of the more unusual powers jurors have in America’s justice system. It…
