On 7/8/06, Michael Snow wikipedia@earthlink.net wrote:
Jury nullification does not involve a judge or some other higher authority nullifying the decision of the jury. Jury nullification refers to the ability of the jury to reach a verdict contrary to the law and the instructions of the court. Fans of the concept like to cite John Peter Zenger's acquittal on a charge of libel as an example of this.
Exactly right, to the best of my knowledge. The American legal system and others like it treats this as an unfixable bug in the jury system; despite all exhortations to the contrary, the jury can reach any conclusions it likes for whatever reason it wishes. Some activists and others, however, try and push the idea that juries' ability to ignore laws they disagree with is a feature, not a bug.
-Matt