- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
The truth is more complicated than that.
(The writer is not a lawyer and is in fact an activist for jury nullification, but the case law he cites is useful and illustrative of the actual principles.)
The only people categorically prohibited from even mentioning much less endorsing nullification are lawyers and generally even that is only in the presence of actual jury members, which would constitute grounds for a mistrial and potential contempt of court charges as well as, as you said, jury tampering.
And this doesn't mean you won't necessarily be arrested and charged if you do it, and you may even be convicted, but the vast majority of these cases are overruled on appeal. So definitely exercise prudence in your activism (going through a trial and maybe appeal is no picnic), but the one major case cited where a jury tampering charge wasn't thrown out on appeal involved actually going into the courthouse and specifically accosting jurors in a case involving a personal friend.
Your second sentence is entirely true, though. You will DEFINITELY be thrown off a jury for uttering a whiff of such a sentiment IF it is during voir dire, and could conceivably be prosecuted for perjury if you lied about a specific question put to you about it. However, jury proceedings are generally confidential and there is a very high bar for even having an inquiry into what went on in them.
