U.S. Appeals Court Rebukes Federal Judge Who Endorsed Jury Nullification in Trial of Sex Offender
A federal appeals court has issued an unusual reprimand to a Connecticut judge who had decided to allow an accused sex offender to ask jurors to find him innocent by arguing that the laws he is accused of violating were unjustly applied and the accompanying prison sentences too harsh, reports the Hartford Courant.
In the trial, U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill’s ruling would have permitted a defense lawyer to argue a concept known as jury nullification. It applies in cases where juries nullify or ignore statutes that would result in likely conviction because jurors are persuaded the laws are somehow unfair, explains the Courant’s Edmund H. Mahony.
The trial adjourned abruptly the morning it was to have begun so federal prosecutors could appeal.
