The Power Of The Juror

The Power Of The Juror

Periodically I will post little known points of law, most often Constitutional issues.

By de Andréa

August 23, 2013

Unlike Obama who got his diploma from a box top and studied Constitutional law from Saul Alinsky’s book on Community Organizing…In ‘my’ travels through the U.S. Constitution while taking Constitutional Law 101 and 102 at Michigan’s Hillsdale University, I sometimes discover little known bits of useful information that one can use.  This is one of those little known bits…

I believe that I introduced this issue last yearand maybe even the year before, but with Jury Rights Day just around the corner, coming up on September 5, it is a good time to reflect upon a Jury’s Duty ‘and rights’ once again.  If you or a friend has been called for Jury Duty, you might want to print this article and all the supporting source information and/or just forward it to a friend.

Our Founding Fathers, in all their God given wisdom, gave us a Constitutional Law with layers of safeguards, so that if we erred, we had several venues in which we could correct that error, peaceably – without even a shot being fired.

Little known, is the absolute tremendous power that a single juror actually has.  More power than the police the Attorneys General, more power than the judge, than even the legislator of the law itself, more power than even the president of these United States and the Republic of America.

One of these very important layers of constitutional checks and balances is Jury Nullification.  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were very strong advocates of this right.  Where the rubber hits the road “We The People” have all the power.

Our framers stated:

“It would be an absurdity for jurors to be required to accept the judge’s view of the law, against their own opinion, judgment, and conscience.”  (John Adams)

“It is not only [the juror's] 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.”  (John Adams, America’s second President; 1797)

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”  (Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Thomas Paine; 1789)

“The juries [are] our judges of all fact and of law when they choose it.”  (Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval; 1816.  ME 15:35)

And the one that holds the most credibility in my book is the First Chief Justice of the U.S. John Jay, in 1789, he stated on this issue, “The jury has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.”  He went on to say that, “…any law that violates constitutional law is not law, and shall not be enforced by any law enforcement officer or shall not be upheld by any court”.

Lastly, and most succinctly, Alexander Hamilton, in 1804, said that, “Jurors should acquit, even against the judge’s instruction… if exercising their judgment with discretion and honesty, they have a clear conviction the charge of the court is wrong.”

Jury Rights Day

Simply stated, from the time of the signing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215, and right up to the present, as I stated earlier, “We the People”, when in the role as juror, wield immense power over the facts and the laws of the case that are in question.  The power of the Juror is greater than that of the courtroom judge, the legislators who wrote the law, or even that of the President of the United States. 

The axe the Jury wields is NULLIFICATION, and in spite of what a judge may instruct you, the Jurors do not have to obey the courtroom judge regarding the decision of the case.  You cannot be intimidated by the courtroom, the judge, or the venue.

If in your estimation the accused is guilty but the punishments are too harsh, if the laws are flawed, or if a government is running rampant over the populace, as is currently the rule, the juror’s power to nullify can easily stand in peaceful opposition.  Jury nullification has protected our freedom of speech and even helped to overturned prohibition.  (See Niagara Falls Reporter, “JURY NULLIFICATION HAS LONG HISTORY OF RIGHTING WRONG LAWS”, By Frank Parlato (2012),

Few people understand Jury Nullification, as it is of course not taught in the government controlled institutions of indoctrination and brainwashing.  Grade school teachers, high school teachers, and even college professors purposely do not explain exactly why the jury system is so important to our legal system.  They do not explain why the jury system is even written into the Bill of Rights.  They fail to teach the powerful feature of Jury Nullification.  They neglect to inform jurors that they are not required to follow the judge’s directions, or even follow the law for that matter.

Because of this pervasive ignorance, the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA; FIJA.org) flyer complains, “Too often, jurors actually end up apologizing to the person they’ve convicted – or to the community for acquitting when the evidence clearly established guilt,” such as in the case if the well known OJ trial.

Since the Government illegally controls the so-called Public Education System in this country they have created a populous of pervasive ignorance among jurors, and this ignorance is used by our leaders so that they can more easily manipulate and control us where we really are the most powerful, thus abating the power of nullification away from us.

We, as American patriotic gun owners for example, are constantly under siege by a plethora of illegal attacks.  Whether it is self-defense, stand-your-ground, how many bullets one can carry, what guns are good, what guns are bad, or any other gun issue; we must expend our energies on a multitude of fronts.  Yes, there will always be laws created and that are cases brought to court where there is a need for individuals to say, “No, Stop!”  And, “We the People” must learn that we can say “No” without question or legal punishment.  The method… is JURY NULLIFICATION.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  I’d like to leave you with the words of U.S. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone who echoed Chief Justice Jay on the Juror’s Duty.  “If a juror feels that the statute involved in any criminal offence is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant’s natural God-given unalienable or Constitutional rights.  Then it is his duty to affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime at all, for no one is bound to obey an unjust law.”  (Emphasis added)  ~ (U.S. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone, 1941-1946)

I hope that will give you just a little ray of hope that in the end “WE THE PEOPLE” still hold all the cards.  And then if everything fails we still have the last resort of the Second Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.

Have your rights been infringed lately my friend???

Thanks for listening – de Andréa

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