Jury
Nullification: A
sanctioned doctrine of trial proceedings wherein members of a jury
disregard either the evidence presented or the instructions of the
judge in order to reach a verdict based upon their own consciences.
It espouses the concept that jurors should be the judges of both law
and fact.
Mesquite,
TX – David Gerber sees himself doing something to change the course
of history.
He
is taking up a collection to educate the venire from which the County
Court at Law jury of six registered voters will be chosen in the
re-trial of C.J. Grisham following his October mistrial over a
misdemeanor case in which he is charged with carrying a loaded
firearm on a rural road.
Temple,
Texas city police arrested him and confiscated his weapons, an AR-15
assault rifle and a semiautomatic .45 caliber Kimber concealment
model handgun, for which he holds a concealed carry handgun license.
M/Sgt.
Grisham is accused of violating a statute that prohibits interfering
with a public official carrying out his appointed duties. A Class B
misdemeanor filed in Bell County Court at Law, heard by a visiting
jurist from Harris County, upon conviction, it carries the maximum
penalty of a $2,000 fine and six months in the County jail.
Police
originally charged him with resisting arrest, then with a violation
of the disorderly conduct statute by “rudely carrying” a firearm
“in a manner calculated to cause alarm.”
Prosecutors
have stated they intend to re-try the case in a change of venue at an
undisclosed location outside of Bell County.
Mr.
Gerber's mission is to send printed material to the registered voters
named in the venire who are designated for jury selection in the
case, which is tentatively scheduled for December 16 in an
undisclosed location.
His
goal is to raise $1,200 for printing and postage, and to obtain the
mailing list from the Bell County Clerk's office.
The
material will state that “Every
single day in America, people are convicted of "crimes"
simply because the members of the jury were not made aware that they
had the RIGHT
to
disregard the instructions of the Judge and/or the law itself if they
feel that either is in conflict with morality or the Constitution of
The United States of America.”
Jury
nullification is a concept used with great effect in western states
such as Montana and Idaho when prosecutors bring charges for
marijuana or gun violations. The goal is to make it impossible to
select a jury from a venire of prospective panelists who refuse to
acknowledge during voir dire examination that they will be able to
render a verdict based solely on the judge's instructions, and upon
the facts as presented through witness testimony and the introduction
of evidence during the trial.
Those
who indicate during questioning by prosecuting attorneys that they
will not be able to render a verdict based solely on the facts are
dismissed for cause, for which there is an unlimited number of
challenges.
In
many cases, the prosecution gives up pursuit of their cases when it
becomes obvious there is no way they can easily select a jury panel.
To
contact Mr. Gerber with a donation, one need only visit his website
at Jury Education and Awareness Campaign:
Nullification
is a concept introduced by Messrs. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson
during the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, particularly in the
western states of Kentucky and Ohio. They were able to convince state
legislators who feared a central government that could become too
strong that the extraordinary powers vested in the federal
government could be curbed through three forms of nullification.
- Legislative action
- Judge-made case law
- Jury nullification
To
further their interests, they had the Constitutional Convention
insert the Tenth Amendment, which reserves all powers not granted to
the federal government by the U.S. Constitution to the states.
Many
experts, including Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, author of
the Texas Concealed Handgun statute, consider city and county
ordinances drafted to outlaw carrying firearms openly to be
unconstitutional; they have called for action and more action to
nullify these laws.
He
is a GOP candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and as Land Commissioner
granted permission for Open Carry activists to rally at the Alamo in
support of gun rights on October 19.
Gun
confiscation by Mexican authorities was a major cassus belli in the
Texas Revolution, he noted in public remarks he made on that day.
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