this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
221 points (99.6% liked)

No Stupid Questions

38859 readers
813 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I’ve been reading a lot about jury nullification, and I get that jurors have the power to acquit someone even if the law technically says they’re guilty. But what I don’t get is—why is this something that exists, yet courts don’t allow it to be talked about during a trial?

If it’s a legitimate part of the legal system, why is it treated like a secret? Would a juror get in trouble for mentioning it during deliberations? And what would happen if someone brought it up during jury selection?

I’m just curious how this all works in practice. If jurors can ultimately do whatever they want, what stops them from using nullification all the time?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] atomicorange@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You’re the one saying a moral argument is “unrealistic”.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Can you clarify what you're actually saying?

If you're trying to imply that a more moral person would see things your way, I couldn't care less. It's a pretty meaningless assertion.

You seem to be suggesting that moral considerations are not relevant to legal proceedings, yet simultaneously arguing that jurors should refuse to convict on moral grounds.

That's simply not how laws are intended to be applied. Democratically elected representatives debate moral considerations when designing laws. If you want criminal law to include an exemption for murderers of CEOs that you don't like, you should write to your local rep I guess.

In the mean time, jurors will just have to apply the law as it stands.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

You seem to be suggesting that moral considerations are not relevant to legal proceedings, yet simultaneously arguing that jurors should refuse to convict on moral grounds.

This is correct. There is no paradox here; no hypocrisy.

"We The People" empower the constitution. The Constitution empowers the government. The government has only the law; it does not have any sort of moral code. The government cannot consider moral principals in the application of law.

The juror is not a member of the government. The juror is a member of "We The People"; a peer of the accused.

Where the juror is convinced that the legislature did not appropriately consider the specific circumstance of the accused, the juror is constitutionally permitted to return a "just" verdict, consistent with their own morality.

While a judge can be legally obligated to issue a ruling inconsistent with his own moral code, a jury is NEVER obligated to return a verdict they believe to be unjust.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Where the juror is convinced that the legislature did not appropriately consider the specific circumstance of the accused, the juror is constitutionally permitted to return a "just" verdict, consistent with their own morality.

As I've said elsewhere, this is just made up poppycock that sounds nice.

I'm sure that wherever that's written down in the "rules" it also says all good dogs go to heaven right?

Anyhow, as we seem to have exhausted your repertoire of made up constitutional wisdom I think I'll leave you to continue reassuring yourself that the founding fathers invented jury nullification and wanted Luigi to walk free.

While I look forward to reading your final parting dispensation of mythical wondery, I will not reply.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 points 3 hours ago

As I've said elsewhere, this is just made up poppycock that sounds nice.

What does the phrase "We The People" mean, as used in the preamble of the constitution?

This is basic, foundational stuff we are talking about here. The fundamental concepts of democracy. Those aren't just fun, patriotic words; they have actual meanings. Our government does not arise from "divine right" or "ancestral claims". It exists because We The People willed it into existence. We willed into existence the right of the accused to be judged not by agents of the government, but by the peers of the accused. The same "We The People" who conveyed a tiny portion of their powers to allow the United States government to come into existence are charged also with wielding their power in determining the guilt or innocence of the accused.

You suggestion that the jury is beholden to the legislature is offensive. Your suggestion that "We The People" are legally and constitutionally obligated to enforce unjust laws promulgated by a corrupt legislature is absolutely galling. Made up poppycock that sounds nice? This is a core tenet of democracy we are talking about here.

I have asked you, repeatedly, to provide the constitutional basis for your claims, as I have repeatedly provided for mine. The closest you have come to any sort of support for your position is this statement:

Any observer can see that the jury is in place to provide a check against the judiciary and the executive.

That is not in any way a reasonable, rational argument.