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22 J. Psychiatry & L. 165 (1994)
Jury Nullification

handle is hein.journals/jpsych22 and id is 173 raw text is: The Journal of Psychiatry & Law/Spring 1994 COMMENTARY Jury nullification BY PROFESSOR RALPH SLOVENKO As we know, juries sometimes return verdicts contrary to law. After all, they do not have to give a reason for their decision. Returning a verdict contrary to law is known as jury nullifi- cation. It occurs when the jury believes the defendant's con- duct should not constitute a crime (although it does), or that the defendant was morally (but not legally) justified in violat- ing the law; or the jury may simply feel compassion for the defendant. In the days preceding a trial in Michigan on assisted suicide, Jack Kevorkian's lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, said in statements to the media that he would urge the jury to disregard the law. Kevorkian was charged with violating the state's ban on assisted suicide, a ban he claims is improper and immoral. Foreseeing this argument, the prosecutor, by pretrial motion, prevailed upon the trial judge to enter an order barring any mention of nullification during the trial. However, pretrial statements on nullification were reported extensively in the media.' The question of jury nullification has come up in a number of much-publicized trials. Perhaps the most famous example arose during the colonial era, when John Peter Zenger, a New © 1994 by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.

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