Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 18 2011

During one of his frequent visits to a courtroom, former Idaho gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell was arrested and charged with felony jury tampering for distributing materials on jury nullification. The literature correctly pointed out that juries have plenary authority to rule on both the facts and the law in a case.

That charge against Rammell was eventually negotiated down to a misdemeanor. In fact, it should have been dismissed outright ? and similar charges filed against nearly every judge and prosecutor in the state of Idaho, who routinely commit what can only be described as jury tampering.

In Idaho, as in other states, jurors are required to sign a document attesting that they will be bound by the trial judge?s view of the law. That claim is a patent falsehood, and the document containing it is a spurious and unenforceable contract.

In a 1794 Supreme Court case that was tried before a jury, John Jay ? the first Chief Justice and  co-author of the Federalist Papers ? informed jurors that they had the duty to ?judge ? [both] the law as well as the fact in controversy.?

Today, Chief Justice John Jay ? a Framer of the Constitution -- would be considered unsuitable  for jury duty in Idaho.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.