We invite you to take a moment during your lunch break today to distribute the link to this blog post to your friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and the Oath is to the Constitution, not to the government, or to any official. This has implications for persons summoned for jury duty. It has implications for judges and prosecutors too, should they be interested in obeying their oath.

Trial by jury is secured by the Constitution (Art. III Section 2) and in the Six Amendment and Seventh Amendment of the Bill of Rights, and also in the Due Process clause of the Fifth. The power (and right and responsibility) of the jury to vote according to conscience and to judge the merits (and constitutionality) of the law as well as the facts in the case is what makes trial by jury an important bulwark of liberty. Trial by Jury places protection of the rights of the citizens in the hands of the citizens directly.

The Founders believed that trial by jury would preserve and protect our rights, and they put a lot of emphasis on it as a bedrock principle of a free society, going back to the Magna carta.

Thomas Jefferson said, “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”

John Adams said of the juror, “it is not only his right, but his duty – to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.” (Yale Law Journal, 1964:173)

The trials of the Quaker William Penn in England for preaching an illegal religion to an unlawful assembly and the publisher John Peter Zenger for publishing unlawful (but true) criticism of the royal governor of New York colony helped establish
our legal traditions of freedom of religion and speech. In both cases, rebellious, conscientious jurors voted for acquittal against the law and the instructions of the judge.

Read more.

We encourage everyone to do one or more of the following simple things to celebrate Jury Rights Day:
-Gather a group of friends and hand out some brochures (order here or print your own).
-Call in to or be a guest on talk radio shows.
-Write letters to the editor (download boilerplates you can adapt).
-Speak at schools or to civic groups.
-Add a Jury Rights Day graphic to your website and link to FIJA.
-Follow FIJA on Twitter and use hashtag #juryrightsday to promote Jury Rights Day before September 5 and to inform people about jurors’ rights on September 5.
-Post a Jury Rights Day status on your Facebook page and link to FIJA.
-Kick off a Challenge for Churches series at your church (Jury Rights Day falls on Sunday this year!).
-Get in touch with one of your state contacts to help plan an event for Jury Rights Day or contact us to volunteer as a FIJA contact in your state.

Generally make the news known that jurors can and must vote their conscience!

We encourage you to check with your state contacts for information, or you can contact the FIJA National office for literature, press release boilerplates, proclamation boilerplates which we encourage mayors and governors to sign, and other materials. Please also feel free to e-mail us with a summary of your Jury Rights Day plans if you would like us to help publicize them through our website and social networks. Also, use the state news section of the forums for coordination and announcements!

Finally, we encourage you to get in touch with us after Jury Rights Day to let us report back on your events. Let us know what you do and what happens so we can publish the news in the newsletter and on our website.

We invite you to take a moment during your lunch break today to distribute the link to this blog post to your friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

We have recently posted Jury Rights Day graphics you can download and use to link back to FIJA’s website to help educate potential jurors about their rights and responsibilities in the jury box.

And don’t forget you have the opportunity to win cash or other prizes by entering our Justice Through Jurors video contest. The top prize is $250 for a video no longer than three minutes. You still have time to enter, but don’t miss the deadline- videos must be submitted by August 15. We will announce the winners on Jury Rights Day.

We invite you to take a moment during your lunch break today to distribute the link to this blog post to your friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

It was a beautiful day, and there was a good turn out of people protesting about the tyrannical run away government.  The people at this protest were very pleasant and understanding.  I explained who I was and what I was representing.  They all took a brochure from me and thanked me for this information.

Read more at http://florida.fija.org

In Wood’s new and excellent book on Nullification, much is written about the use of nullification at the state level of government against the federal level of government, but less attention is given nullification by the individual juror. Yet, the essence of justice is that human rights and conscience exist and can be exercised only at an individual level. There is no “collective right” just as there is no “collective conscience.”

While the perceived collective political community may embark on collective political posturing for myriad reasons, it is only at the individual level that the elegance of the independent juror, capable of raising a standard of justice in anticipation of the coming tides in the affairs of men, that we observe the prescient nature of the individual human conscience in steering the ship of state through troubled waters.

Throughout human history, we have moved from slavery toward the recognition of the unique rights and self-ownership of each individual human. With this journey has come the recognition of the evils of collectivist thinking at all levels of consideration. When we finally accept––as a cultural necessity––the inherent value and rights of each individual human, and when there are free markets and voluntary associations, we will still have need of juries to consider, to weigh, and to decide, what is justice and what is not.

In fact, one can readily thumb through history and find instances of brilliant juror nullification: cases in which the jurors anticipated later-recognized human rights; cases in which jurors raised the standard of justice to new heights. A recent review carefully points up shifting sentiment toward nullification. At almost every instance within this excellent article, one could substitute the concept of the individual juror for the concept of the collective state government, and in that substitution, find the essence of the concept of the jury of 12 jurors: of self-determination on an individual level, as each juror accepts the authority to judge the law as well as the fact, based on individual sense of conscience, justice, and compassion.

Investigation of instances of failure of the jury reveal that such instances can be attributed more to government employees’ political jury stacking than to jury malfunction. In many instances, racism, sexism, or other factors kept juries from being truly representative of all those connected to the case.

(The economic implications are clear: re-open justice to the vote of the free market: let the people, as should be represented by the jury in every criminal case, determine those laws considered economically viable for enforcement. We might soon see only one law: no initiation of force or fraud for any reason whatsoever.)

Let the jurors act on individual motivation, and let bad laws fall before the conscientious, informed jurors who understand that they have the authority to judge the law as well as the facts, and that it must be their personal sense of justice which compels their individual verdict. Let there be no distinction of the right to nullify bad laws, whether at the state level or at the individual level, where one juror, acting independently in good conscience, has the same right to nullify as any government body.

The jury is one of the smallest, and therefore most significant, of duly constituted bodies involved in the application of laws and the mechanisms of justice. The elegance of 12 jurors has been examined from a mathematical perspective, found as Appendix I in Vin Suprynowicz’s brilliant Send in the Waco Killers, which I imagine you have all read. Read the Appendix I again. You will be enlightened about the role of the individual juror in serving as an essential and mathematically significant check on government employees’ tyranny and attempted usurpation of human rights.

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution,” a Virginia lawyer wrote … His name was Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson clearly understood that while self-serving government employees at every level would exceed their authority given any opportunity, they could be denied that opportunity by the people who would comprise the jury, who would refuse to enforce usurpations of individual human rights. Jefferson also understood the “anchor” metaphor, and chose it above the “cannon” metaphor, because the jury is a peaceful, necessary restraint to keep the ship of state steady and safe in serving its purpose: the protection of individual human rights. Jurors hold the authority and the ability to enforce the limits of the Constitution by refusing to enforce government employees’ attempts to violate Constitutional boundaries.

Find out more by visiting the Fully Informed Jury Association. You will want to stay for a bit and read up on one of the least-known rights in our Common Law country. It is a right, that when known, effectively can save us––through peaceful means––from the war the government has declared and is making against its own people, not so different from those wars against the people that inspired the Magna Carta.

It is the independent, secular, non-partisan juror who stands as the Fourth Branch of Government, capable of placing a veto on bad laws by refusing to enforce them at the behest of self-interested government employees, whether at the federal, state, or local level. After all, conscientious nullification resides, in the final analysis, in the independent mind of the thinking individual.

Iloilo Marguerite Jones
15 July 2010

We invite you to take a moment during your lunch break today to distribute the link to this blog post to your friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

The theme of the contest is “Justice Through Jurors”. Juries are a rational mechanism for justice. Jurors are independent judges of the facts and the law because they have no legal career to build, nor score to keep for record of wins. They are independent observers with no vested interest in enforcing the agenda of either side. Whether acting through government or private legal systems, juries are our most fail-safe human institution for manifesting justice in a peaceful society. Juries are peaceful mechanisms which replace the mechanism of resolution by violent conflict. FIJA invites you to submit up to 3 original videos promoting or illustrating this theme.

Videos should
1. be no more than 3 minutes long,
2. contain only original or fair use material,
3. feature FIJA’s URL (fija.org) and toll-free number (1-800-TEL-JURY),
4. contain no obscenity, profanity, or illegal activity, and
5. be available online for not less than one year from the date of submission.

Prizes will be awarded as follows:
-The first place winner will receive $250.
-The second place winner will receive $100.
-The third place winner will receive $50.
-Up to ten honorable mentions will receive a Lysander Spooner Reader.
-All entrants will receive a FIJA gift pack.

To submit a video, post it online at YouTube, Vimeo, etc., and send the link, your name, and a mailing address to aji@fija.org. (Your personal information will be used only for contest purposes.) Please make your video embeddable as we may feature it on our blog on a future Freedom Friday! Each participant or group may submit up to 3 entries. All submissions must be received by August 15, 2010.

Winners will be announced on our website on Jury Rights Day, 5 September 2010. Prizes will be mail on or before 15 September 2010.

We invite you to take a moment during your lunch break today to distribute the video to your friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

At 12:00 noon Officer Barnes and a sergeant approached.  Officer Barnes asked me to put down my sign, so that I would not hit him on the head with it.  I declined saying that: “I am not going to hit you.  It is not my style.”  Officer Barnes stood 5 feet in front of me and glowered.  The sergeant stood 5 feet behind me.

I passed out literature, and Barnes kept staring at me.  I said to Barnes, “Nice day isn’t it.”  He replied “Don’t try to be friendly with me.  I am not your friend.”  I apologized for offending him.

Read the rest at the FIJA Forum

We invite you to take a moment during your lunch break today to distribute the video to your friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

Hi:

I was released from prison on June 8 at about 6:00 pm. The case against me has been dropped in the interest of justice.

My cell phone was confiscated, so I cannot access nor return any phone calls. Do not call me.

I have not read any e-mail lately, so I have not responded. It may take several days to read it all.

I am swamped with some personal items which must be attended. Once I get caught up, I will send progress reports and schedule of events again.

Yours in freedom—Julian.

From FIJA Director Iloilo M. Jones:

Dear Julian,

How wonderful that you have been released!

You were a prisoner of conscience, not a criminal, and this Nation needs to know more about how political prisoners are being treated. I am very happy that your stay was a short one, but we all know that there was no reason for your kidnapping or captivity.

Rest, recover, and we all look forward to a full report when you are ready to give one.

For Justice and Liberty for All,

Iloilo M. Jones
FIJA

For more details about Dr. Heicklen’s arrest and imprisonment:
Julian Heicklen sprung from the Big House

“Somewhere, sometime a person will open this book not knowing what to expect, but curious about a man with the curious name of Lysander Spooner. I envy that reader, for that was me nearly twenty-five years ago when I encountered No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority. I could scarcely believe my eyes. Here were ideas radical yet commonsensical, subversive yet quintessentially American. Spooner challenged and excited me… Such experiences are rare because truly original thinkers are rare, and you can only discover them once.”
— George H. Smith, from the introduction

Lysander Spooner was a noted 19th century entrepreneur, legal scholar, abolitionist and proponent of natural law and liberty. The Lysander Spooner reader contains the following classic works by Spooner: Natural Law, Vices are Not Crimes, No Treason, Letter to Thomas F. Bayard, and all twelve chapters plus the appendix of Trial by Jury (an excerpt of which you may have seen published as an essay by FIJA). Best of all, it’s now more affordable than ever as we are offering it for a special price of just $15. You can order it online directly from our Media Catalog listed under the Books and Essays heading.

As Radley Balko requested last year,
“So go find your own metaphor for the government tank pictured above.

Then put yourself in front of it.”

If you are called to serve on a jury, you can metaphorically stand in front of the government tank threatening the life, liberty, and livelihood of the defendant. Remember, your primary function as a juror is not to be an agent of the government dispensing punishment to the defendant. Rather your purpose in that role is to stand as the defendant’s buffer against tyrannical abuses of power by government just as this man stood between the tanks and his neighbors.

Please share the link to this post with friends and family and distribute it via your social networks. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

Recently, he and other activists trying to hand out pamphlets published by the Fully Informed Jury Association were confronted by U.S. marshals in Manhattan. Attempting to record the encounter, Donnelly found himself being pushed to the pavement by the marshals. Then arrested. He is accused of “assaulting a federal marshal.” Another FIJA activist on the scene, Julian Heicklin, was also arrested.

Read the rest here – Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Helena, Montana

The Human Right to Conscience
Iloilo Jones, Executive Director, Fully Informed Jury Association

Recently, making recommendations on certain ballot measures, Montana Human Rights network (MHRN) sent this message:
“Sponsored by Darby’s Frank Kucera, CI-104 would require that juries be told that they can judge the law when reaching verdicts. This idea is known as “jury nullification,” and it has been promoted for years by the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA). FIJA claims that a jury has the right to “judge both the law and the evidence in the case before it.” In essence, FIJA encourages juries to ignore laws they don’t like and set defendants free regardless of evidence. FIJA and jury nullification have been favorites of the “patriot” movement for years. The Network opposes CI-104.”

As the Executive Director of the Fully Informed Jury Association, I am compelled to ask why MHRN would oppose a measure to remind jurors of their Human Right to consult their own conscience when rendering a verdict. Jurors have done so in many cases:
• In England, the William Penn case established both the right of jurors to render a verdict based on conscience, and the right to practice the religion of one’s choice;
• In the colonies, the Zenger case established the right of jurors to render a verdict in direct opposition to oppressive laws, and the right to freedom of the press;
• In the era of slavery, many cases emphasized the right of jurors, especially Quaker jurors, to refuse to punish any person who helped a slave to escape, although the Fugitive Slave Act made such assistance a crime. Jurors simply refused to convict;
• During prohibition, jurors refused to convict those buying or selling alcohol;
• During the Viet Nam era, jurors refused to convict conscientious objectors and draft resisters;
• Today, jurors are refusing to convict patients who use medical marijuana.

As a former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Civil Rights worker, and a long-time advocate of both peace and the tradition of peaceful deliberations before a jury of one’s peers, I am compelled to ask: Why is MHRN opposed to the traditional and legal right of jurors to know of their obligation to render a true verdict after a careful examination of both the law and the facts of any case where a jury is seated? Why attempt to tarnish the good name of FIJA by an association with another organization, albeit one I find harmless, and sometimes helpful? Is it because FIJA’s educational efforts remind everyone of the significant role of the juror in protecting and securing the human rights of all peoples, in all nations, in every instance, where jurors are found? Is it because the traditional role of jurors denies kings and politicians a portion of the power they covet?

FIJA has long worked with human rights organizations such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Council On Racial Equality, Anti-Nuclear Policy, Gun Owners of America, Americans for Safe Access, and many more.

It remains the mission of FIJA to educate everyone on the role of the juror to protect the Human Rights of all persons. This has been the role of the jury, as codified in the Magna Carta, since well before this Nation was founded. I would hope to see it as an international standard of the justice process.

There has always been a tension between governments and the people who live under that government–whether kings or politicians are running the government–for control on one hand, and freedom on the other. Juries have long been an integral part of the justice system to ensure that no Human Rights are violated–either under bad laws or through misapplication of a good law–when an individual is brought to trial.

It is a common good that all jurors be reminded of their right to consider the fairness of laws. Juror’s decisions of conscience constitute a peaceful means to inform government of community displeasure with bad laws. Jurors protect harmless, productive people from government mistakes and predations.

We are fortunate, then, that (MHRN) was not present to stop the jury, in the William Penn trial, from defending freedom of religion.

We are fortunate that jurors who refused to convict during the Salem Witch trials weren’t influenced by MHRN. We are fortunate that MHRN wasn’t around to stop the jury from defending freedom of the press in the Zenger case, or to stop juries from refusing to enforce slavery under the Fugitive Slave Act.

We are fortunate that jurors, knowing their rights, anticipated and set a higher standard of tolerance and individual rights than have many laws imposed by kings or politicians. We are fortunate to have a tradition of conscientious, peaceful jurors, who objected to oppressive, racist, and unjust laws –and refused to enforce those laws. Historically, jurors have been at the vanguard of Human Rights, refusing to enforce bad laws.

How could any right-thinking Human Rights worker possibly be against such peaceful measures to ensure equal justice for all?

For Justice and Liberty for All,
Iloilo Jones, Executive Director
Fully Informed Jury Association

Contact:
Iloilo Jones
FIJA
PO Box 5570
Helena, MT 59604

We invite you to take a moment during your lunch break today to distribute the video to your friends and family via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

We have been trying to contact someone at the New York Police Department to find out his status. So far, we have been unsuccessful, but we were referred to Central Booking at (212) 374-3942. The number has so far been busy when we’ve called. If you are able to get in touch with someone at this or another number, please inquire as to Julian’s current location, prisoner number, and his health and well-being.

If you have any news of him, please post it on the FIJA forum, or e-mail us at aji@fija.org. We want to ensure that as a prisoner of conscience in a city which is the international home of the United Nations, he is alive, physically unharmed, and being afforded all human rights as recognized under the United States Constitution, Geneva Convention, and by Amnesty International.

This week, we’d like to share with you a brief talk given by a FIJA activist before the Liberty Toastmasters in Colorado:

If you would like to recommend a jury-related video for promotion on Freedom Friday, let us know in the FIJA forum or by sending an e-mail to us at aji(at)fija.org.

George was attacked, arrested, and sent to a federal facility for the “crime” of photographing on federal property, which is not an offense against any known or published statute, law, edict, whim, or directive.

George has been released and is at home under “home arrest.” He needs both legal assistance and our financial support. More information can be found at the following links:

http://fija.org/2010/05/12/fed-marshals-violently-arrest-fija-activist-violate-dhs-policy/

http://drunkenatheist.com/2010/05/14/move-it-along-sir/

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-26370-Libertarian-News-Examiner~y2010m5d13-George-Donnelly-freed-from-federal-captivity

Two libertarian activists, George Donnelly and Jim Babb, had barely joined relentless freedom campaigner Julian Heicklen at the federal courthouse in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to help distribute Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) literature when they were confronted by US Marshals.

The three had worked together before but, as Babb later described this experience, “We encountered the most aggressive opposition that I have seen so far.”

It began when a female agent approached Heicklen.

“Julian chose to argue with her in a belligerent fashion,” Babb reports. “Within seconds, about 10 or 12 federal goons arrived. These people were extremely aggressive. The female assaulted Julian. He commanded her to back off.”

That’s when George Donnelly, attempting to videotape the incident, was taken down by the marshals.

Look official as you hand out FIJA literature.  Wear this Fully Informed Jury Association button which includes the website address. Price is $2.00 each which includes packaging and postage.  Please send your name, mailing address, and quantity of buttons desired to SLfeedback (at) safe-mail.net