This is great to put on the backs of brochures or on other Jury Nullification handouts!

Every once-in-awhile events occur that provide some optimism that real people – rather than the sock-puppets who speak on behalf of institutional interests – have a firm grip on reality. The jury in the Casey Anthony trial did precisely what they were directed to do by the court: deliberated on the evidence presented to them, and concluded that there was not the requisite degree of certitude to allow them to find this woman guilty of the murder charges brought against her.

This was more than the percaled agents of “justice” could take. They know a “guilty” person when they see one: it’s whoever is charged with a crime by the state! The cable-TV bobbleheads – let’s call them Dennis Dullard and Amelia Airhead – began screaming for vengeance, . . . not so much against Ms. Anthony, but against the jurors! Their screeches of rage were echoed by other lobotomized voices, one of whom urged doing away with the jury system altogether. Charles Dickens’ Madame Defarge was resurrected! Another shrieked at the “idiots on the jury,” while another asked the most irrelevant question as it pertained to this defendant: “who killed Caylee then?”

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Perhaps not since the feds hanged Mary Surratt for Abe Lincoln’s assassination have so many been so happy at the thought of seeing a woman lynched. To the outrage of bloodthirsty, bleary-eyed couch potatoes from sea to shining sea, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of the murder of her daughter.

The case itself is far less interesting than the reaction to it. In spite of all the drama that the despicable “news” media attempted to inject into it, the actual trial was humdrum. In typical fashion, the prosecution built its case on mostly circumstantial evidence and on character assassination. The jury concluded that the prosecution had not proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A not-guilty verdict was returned. Case closed.

This is exactly how the legal system is supposed to work. People are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, and guilt must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. We’re not supposed to convict people of capital crimes because we find them distasteful or annoying.

None of that matters to the great American lynch mob, which, not even being present at the trial, finds itself so magnificently insightful and so morally pure, that its shrill cries for justice echo with unparalleled histrionic fervor down the virtual halls of Facebook and Twitter.

But of course, we all know that Anthony was guilty because Nancy Grace told us so. Nancy Grace! Here’s a woman who makes Father Coughlin look like a man possessed of great reason and tolerance. Trotting up endless trains of “experts” who assured us of Anthony’s guilt, and never tiring of providing the most shallow analysis of every moment of the trial, CNN made it clear that had it been around to report on Anne Hutchinson’s trial in 1637, the network would have ensured that no penalty short of public disemboweling would have been suitable for such a loathesome instrument of The Devil. Indeed, Grace herself assured us that “the devil is dancing” over the Anthony verdict. May the gods have mercy on anyone forced to endure Thanksgiving dinner with a woman so shrill and maudlin as this.

And it is the reaction to the verdict that is, by far, the most interesting part of this national carnival of self-righteousness. Following the verdict, celebrities – many of whom are apparently famous for nothing more than being famous – made their solemn pronouncements about the sheer injustice of the trial.

D-List celebrity Vivica Fox, that modern heir of both Cicero and Solon, declared on Twitter that “My heart is ripped apart! How dare those idiots on that Jury not see the truth? That b—- killed her kid! Who the hell killed Caylee then?” Fourth-rate comedian Kevin Nealon said things almost as brilliant.

The pronouncements from the moralists among the non-famous were essentially identical in their moral indignation and in their metaphysical certitude that Anthony is, in fact, the most guilty person since Osama bin Laden. And, since Americans were perfectly fine with killing him when unarmed and in captivity, we surely can find it in our hearts to give Casey Anthony the same treatment.

The moralizing is even more intolerable when considered from a larger context, and the American ideal of “justice” in this case is enforced so selectively as to give even the most cynical observer pause.

The contradictions are so glaring, in fact, that even Rush Limbaugh, for the first time since Bill Clinton left office, said something insightful when he pointed out that had Casey Anthony – assuming she’s guilty – simply killed Caylee five minutes before giving birth to her, Anthony would be hailed as a hero by virtually everyone at CNN.

And of course, how many toddlers have been incinerated by American bombs or poisoned by American depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade? Who cares? Those toddlers didn’t even have the decency to be cute Anglo-Saxons.

But, before we throw a noose over a tree branch for Casey Anthony, there are a few lessons we can first learn from the trial:

Number One: We should take nothing we see in the media at face value: In spite of decades of evidence to the contrary, many people still think that they can make well-informed decisions about things based on what they’re given through television “news” programs. In fact, we the viewers are purely at the mercy of what the anchors and produces want us to see. All of the Americans who think that they followed the case “closely” still have access to only a fraction of the information available to jurors. Even someone who watched every single minute of the trial via live video feed can still only see what the camera is showing at any given minute, and can only hear what the microphones pick up.

In addition, the government has much greater access to the media than the defendant in most cases. From day one of an investigation, the media will generally, without criticism, repeat whatever is said by the police about the suspects. Once the case passes to the hands of the district attorney, the media will then dutifully report whatever is said by the prosecutors. The accused meanwhile is shown to the public through mug shots and in video of being shuttled from jail to the courthouse.

Number Two: Government prosecutors are not to be trusted. Does this point even need to repeated? Prosecutors routinely make prosecutions for political reasons. Cushy political appointments, elected offices and jobs as state and federal judges are at stake. The Duke Lacrosse Team, Tim Masters, and Lisl Auman can tell you all about it. In addition, prosecutors are virtually never held accountable for anything. The disbarment of Michael Nifong is a rare case of this, and his punishment amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist compared to what he wanted to do to the accused.

Number Three: We don’t know how we would react if one of our children ended up dead. The prosecution’s case rested heavily on using Casey Anthony’s strange and distasteful public behavior following the death of her daughter to paint her as a callous murderer. The moralists all declared that “we would never act that way.”

Yet, in real life, people do strange things when under enormous levels of stress, shock, and dismay. Some honest people might willingly admit, that if their children turned up dead, they might go on a three month bender unparalleled in the history of drunkenness. That’s what an honest person might admit, anyway. All of Anthony’s accusers, on the other hand, would no doubt show up to work on time the next morning and swing by the church on the way home and calmly light a candle.

What sort of person would act strangely and erratically following the untimely death of a child? A normal one.

Number Four: Intellectually honest atheists and Christians (and probably many others) agree: There is no true justice in this world. For the Christians, justice comes after this life. For the atheists, there’s no justice in any life, since we’re all just headed for oblivion, and Hitler and Sophie Scholl both ultimately met the same fate.

Thus the public rending of garments and the calls for justice, no matter what the cost, is both dangerous and unrealistic. History is filled with unsolved murders; many of them horrific. They’ll never be solved. The killers will never be brought to justice. Once we include wars in the analysis, the prospects for justice are even more bleak.

The jury felt there wasn’t enough evidence to convict. Should they have convicted anyway so that they could feel good about themselves? Any decent legal system should preclude the possibility of conviction in the face of insufficient evidence. This is why the ancient Jews required that at least two witnesses must agree on what happened. Nothing less could bring convictions. Anything else amounts to heaping one injustice upon another. One of the few commentators on this case not calling for the immediate execution of Casey Anthony noted that:

This case is good for the criminal-justice system and here’s why: if people actually read the jury instructions about reasonable doubt, there would be a lot more acquittals…What this verdict does is demonstrate that unless the prosecution is able to show us how, why, when, and where the crime was committed, a jury is not going reach a decision that could end up sending a defendant to his death.

Unfortunately, the jury members will need to defend themselves from the moral outrage of the likes of Nancy Grace, but they can take heart in the fact that everyone will forget about them once something more interesting comes on TV.

July 8, 2011

Ryan McMaken [send him mail] teaches political science in Colorado.

Copyright © 2011 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

Daytona Beach – The ACLU of Florida today filed a legal challenge to an Administrative Order entered by Chief Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. The Order bans protected speech on the Orange County and Osceola County Courthouse complexes. The ACLU’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari asks the Fifth District Court of Appeal of Florida to review and overturn the Order.

The ACLU of Florida filed the Petition on behalf of the Fully Informed Jury Association (“FIJA”) and one of its supporters and volunteers, James Cox, who, until Judge Perry’s order, regularly spoke about jurors’ rights and distributed leaflets and other related educational materials at the Orange County Courthouse complex. Mr. Cox’s expressive conduct, and the FIJA materials he offered to members of the public focused primarily on jury nullification, sometimes referred to as “jury pardons.”

Cooperating attorney Lawrence G. Walters, of Walters Law Group, and ACLU of Florida lawyers Randall Marshall and Maria Kayanan are asking the Fifth District Court of Appeal to vacate the January 31, 2011 order that bans the distribution of materials, oral protest, education, or counseling “intended to influence summoned jurors on any matter” which is, or may be pending before that individual as a juror. Penalties for violating the order include contempt of court citations, fines, confinement, or a combination.

“The government cannot place preemptive restrictions on free speech just because it doesn’t like what is being said,” said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. “Educating the public and jurors is not obstructing justice.”

In the Petition, the ACLU of Florida argues that the ban violates the United States and Florida Constitutions, by censoring political speech and expressive conduct based solely on its content, with no compelling state interest, and imposes a prior restraint on that protected speech.

“While a judge has the right to control his or her courtroom, that right must give way to the First Amendment right of a citizen to exercise free speech on the courthouse steps. The Order issued by Judge Perry crosses the constitutional line, and is so broad, it even prohibits lawyers from arguing their case to a jury,” said Walters. “We must protect even unpopular and controversial speech to give First Amendment rights ample breathing space they need to survive.”

FIJA is a nonpartisan public policy research and education organization established in Montana in 1989. FIJA describes its mission as educating Americans about their rights and responsibilities when serving as jurors, including their powers of “jury nullification” or “jury pardon” by which, according to FIJA, jurors are encouraged to “vote their conscience” on a case.

“Jury pardons are deeply rooted in American jurisprudence, even if they may be disfavored by judges,” Simon said. “No matter how unpopular or controversial a specific idea is, educating potential jurors about legal theory is not a crime. It’s protected speech.”

FIJA supporters have refrained from speaking about their issues or distributing their literature at the courthouse since Judge Perry’s order was issued. “The judge’s order was clearly intended to single out constitutionally-protected expression which he disagreed with – namely, ours,” stated FIJA Executive Director Iloilo Marguerite Jones. “As an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of American citizens, FIJA is pleased to have the ACLU defending our rights in the courtroom.”

A .PDF copy of the petition filed today is available here:
http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/2011-03-02-FIJAPetition.pdf

A .PDF copy of the Appendix to the petition is available here:
http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/2011-03-02-FIJAPetitionAppendix.pdf

# # #

About the ACLU of Florida
The ACLU of Florida is freedom’s watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For additional information, visit our web site at: www.aclufl.org.

For more information about the Fully Informed Jury Association, visit www.fija.org/aie653l.

For Immediate Release

280 words

*****

FIJA Considers Legal Action

FIJA Seeks Peaceful, Lawful Resolution of Rights Violations

Pursuant to the Administrative Order issued by an Orlando, Florida judge banning FIJA volunteers from handing out educational literature at the Orlando Courthouse, FIJA director Iloilo Marguerite Jones announced today that FIJA would seek peaceful and lawful resolution to this attack on human rights and free speech. FIJA has sent letters to the judge, governor, and attorney general of Florida, insisting on clarification of the order, and the rationale for violation of the First Amendment.

Jones has talked with several attorneys—many of whom have offered their services pro bono—concerning possible strategies for overturning this egregious violation of human rights. Meanwhile, FIJA awaits a response to its request for clarification, which was sent to state officials.

FIJA works to restore the traditional role of the juror to veto bad laws. This veto is called jury nullification, which was instrumental in stopping the Salem Witch Trials, and in protecting freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and Vietnam War protestors. It helped to end enforcement of Prohibition laws. Today, FIJA educates jurors about their right to consult their conscience when giving a verdict, just as jurors did who refused to enforce such corrupt laws as the Fugitive Slave Act and laws against the Quaker religion.

Orlando FIJA activists have been asked by FIJA National to refrain from violating the order, and to hand out FIJA educational literature from other locations around Orlando. New flyers explaining the present situation have been printed and are being shared with people in the state of Florida, as well as nationally, Jones said.

More information on the order and FIJA’s response is available at www.fija.org/aie653l.

******

Contact:
FIJA
Iloilo Marguerite Jones
PO Box 4335
Helena, MT 59604
aji@fija.org/aie653l

I was recently involved in an exchange with a prominent jurist on the issue of jury nullification—the doctrine that jurors are entitled to nullify bad laws by refusing to convict a defendant who did something that is illegal but, in their view, should not be. He pointed out, correctly, that it is a very dangerous doctrine. If everyone believes in jury nullification and one person in five believes that it is all right to murder abortionists, someone who murders an abortionist is unlikely to be convicted. Similarly for any other target group that a significant minority believes deserves death.

Read the rest…

A funny thing happened on the way to a trial in Missoula County District Court last week.

Jurors – well, potential jurors – staged a revolt.

They took the law into their own hands, as it were, and made it clear they weren’t about to convict anybody for having a couple of buds of marijuana. Never mind that the defendant in question also faced a felony charge of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs.

The tiny amount of marijuana police found while searching Touray Cornell’s home on April 23 became a huge issue for some members of the jury panel.

No, they said, one after the other. No way would they convict somebody for having a 16th of an ounce.

In fact, one juror wondered why the county was wasting time and money prosecuting the case at all…

Click here to read the rest of the article.

FIJA Activists in Orlando, FL

From James Cox:

Today I met with Julian Heicklan to start his FIJA activism tour in Florida.

The weather here in Florida today was cold, but the sun was out, with a clear blue sky.

I picked Julian up at his hotel in Orlando and took him to the County Courthouse at 425 N Orange Ave, Orlando, Florida.
We were met by Mark Schmidter, T J Lawrence, John Kurtz, Marla Buchwald, Pete (new addition), Josh Parrish and Scott Olver.  Later we were joined by Alle Shane.  A great turnout from the Orlando group.

We split up and had every corner of the courthouse covered. Nearly everyone walking in or out of the courthouse had a yellow FIJA brochure in their hand.

Today was a great day for FIJA activism. Eight FIJA Activists came out in the cold weather to distribute approximately 1,100 brochures. Well done Team Orlando!