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Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine
By Clay S. Conrad
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What you should know about the powers of the jury.
Publication Date: January 1998
ISBN: 0-89089-702-6
Number of Pages: 311
Paperback
Categories: Law and Civil Liberties
This item is Out of Print.
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About the Book
Central to the history of trial by jury is the right of jurors to vote "not guilty" if the law is unjust or unjustly applied. When jurors acquit a factually guilty defendant, we say that the jury "nullified" the law. The Founding Fathers believed that juries in criminal trials had a role to play as the "conscience of the community," and relied on juries' "nullifying" to hold the government to the principles of the Constitution. Yet over the last century and a half, this power of jurors has been derided and ignored by American courts, to the point that today few jurors are aware that an important part of their role is, in the words of the Supreme Court, to "prevent oppression by the government." Published by Carolina Academic Press.
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About the Author
Clay S. Conrad is an attorney in private practice in Houston, Texas.
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What Others Have Said
"This is the most important book on the independence of juries since Lysander Spooner's Trial by Jury in 1852. It is meticulously researched and balanced. The enjoyment of reading it stems as much from the beauty of Clay Conrad's writing as from the comprehensiveness of his analysis and the fascinating and important nature of his subject."
--Randy E. Barnett, Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Law, Boston University
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