Rittenhouse Not Guilty - Might Be Jury Nullification

WASHINGTON - Nov. 19, 2021 - PRLog -- Karl Rittenhouse was just found not guilty on all the many counts  of which he was charged.

While it could be that the evidence against him just wasn't strong enough, there is a possibility that some or even more of the jurors' votes were based upon juror nullification,

That was the prediction of public interest law professor John Banzhaf who has taught the law of self defense for more than 40 years, and provided legal analysis to justify the self defense shootings of New York's "subway shooter" Bernhard Goetz, DC's "jacuzzi shooter" Carl Rowan as well as in other cases, and correctly predicted the outcomes of many recent police killing cases, as well as the Zimmerman verdict.

Here's the legal analysis and prediction he published several days ago.

Given the very strong feelings and emotions underlying this case - with some characterizing the defendant as a hero and others as a lawless vigilante - there is also a considerable possibility that the outcome of the trial will be decided by juror nullification or jury nullification.

Jury nullification, a constitutional right recognized and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, occurs when jurors, despite concluding beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant has violated the criminal law as explained to them by the judge, nevertheless unanimously votes "not guilty."

Jurors may do this because they believe that the law is unfair or unreasonable, either in general or as applied in a specific situation, to send some kind of message to prosecutors and/or to the general public, because a conviction in a specific situation might seem unjust for some reason, to register strong discontent with the conduct of the prosecutor, because of public pressure for - or concern about - a particular verdict, or for a myriad of other similar reasons which in some situations might even include issues related to race.

In short, this constitutional right permits jurors to nullify the law as it was meant to be applied, says Banzhaf.

Perhaps the public will learn more if one or more jurors speaks with members of the press, but it is unlikely that a juror whose vote was based upon juror nullification would admit it, either to the media or to fellow jurors, suggests Banzhaf.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf