WHAT FEEDS JURY NULLIFICATION?
Common law recognizes that nullification happens, while not endorsing it. Lord Mansfield stated in Rex v. Shipley, 4 Doug. 73 (1784): “It is the duty of the judge, in all cases of general justice, to tell the jury how to do right, though they have it in their power to do wrong, which is a matter entirely between God and their own consciences.” In a concurring opinion, Justice Willes was more adamant about a jury’s getting away with nullification when he opined, “I admit the jury have the power of finding a verdict against the law, and so they have of finding a verdict against evidence, but I deny that they have the right to do so.” Who among us who regularly preside over jury trials cannot recall the jolt of being handed a verdict form that demonstrates that nullification has occurred? Some nullification may appear to the public as a good thing. Our history books proudly describe a jury of American colonists who defied the instructions of the Crown-appointed judge and acquitted newspap
