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Success Stories |
Celebrating jury power successes
This page highlights contemporary stories of jury power at work to protect good people from bad laws. Please share these with others you know. And if you have a success story of your own, contact us so we can show others the power of informed and courageous jurors.
JURY POOL MUTINY BEFORE TRIAL - ONE STEP CLOSER TO REVERSING BAD LAW Jurors who exercise their nullification powers, and refuse to convict defendants accused of breaking bad laws, effectively take the first step toward making bad laws unenforceable. But in Montana, nearly the entire jury pool took the process one step further during jury selection in a 2010 trial by openly declaring their intent to use nullification to acquit/free the defendant if they were selected as jurors. Read on to see the impact of jury power. ~ Report from FIJA Calendar, December 2017 In 2010, police arrested Missoula, Montana resident Touray Cornell after a search of his residence turned up 1/16 of an ounce of marijuana. The case immediately generated local, public outcry. In 2006, Missoula County had passed an initiative making adult marijuana offenses the lowest law enforcement priority. Cornell's case should have been relegated to the lowest priority for prosecution, per the initiative. But Deputy Missoula County Attorney Andrew Paul decided to prosecute anyway, and the case went to trial. As voir dire began, he quickly realized the magnitude of support for the initiative. Out of 27 potential jurors, only five said they would be willing to convict for 1/16 of an ounce of marijuana. One prospective juror called the trial a waste of money and time. District Judge Dusty Deschamps refused to impanel a jury of “hardliners.” He called a recess, asking, “Are we really seating a jury of their peers if we just leave people on who are militant on the subject?” The next day attorneys worked out a plea deal known as an Alford plea, in which the defendant did not have to admit guilt. In what the prosecutor branded as a mutiny, the pool of jurors nullified the charges even before the trial could begin. Former prosecutor and current Georgetown University Law professor Paul Butler dubbed this “jury nullification 2.0”. ~ For more information about this case see this Findlaw article. |