Jury nullification is an integral part of our judicial system, serving as one of the checks and balances required by a free society. The fact that it is unknown to most jurors has contributed greatly to the decline of our court system.

Our founding fathers accepted the common-law principle of jury nullification as an important safeguard for a free society. Jury nullification has been used by jurors throughout our history to nullify unpopular and unjust laws, from laws against free speech to Prohibition.

Why aren't juries routinely informed about their power to vote their conscience and thus nullify bad law? Why isn't jury power taught in school as part of a citizen's "civic duty?"

The Fully Informed Jury Association is dedicated to educating Americans about their rights, powers and responsibilities as trial jurors. FIJA depends upon grassroots activists to inform jurors of their rights and to undertake state-level lobbying and ballot issue efforts.

We must continue to promote the passage of Fully Informed Jury Amendments, to require the practice of informing jurors of their inherent right to bring in a verdict according to their conscience and judgment.

In 1991 FIJA National promoted the first Jury Rights Day celebration, commemorating the acquittal of William Penn on Sept. 5, 1670, by an independent jury, on charges of preaching an illegal religion to an illegal assembly. The judge fined and imprisoned the jury for refusing to bring in a conviction, but a high court established that jurors may not be punished for voting their consciences.

Learn more at http://www.fija.org.

DICK MARPLE

Hooksett