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While watching this 60 minutes segment I was speechless. Professor Paul Butler, a Harvard Law Graduate and still current law professor at George Washington, discussed his views and opinion on jury nullification. The idea of purposely acquitting someone for a non-violent or victimless crime regardless of what the crime is, even when there is solid evidence only because the defendant is black is absolutely ludicrous.

I can't understand how a person who has been taught about the history of law can think that jury nullification would have any other result than chaos. His comment about when he was a prosecutor, "even if some of those people belong in a prison, I didn't go to law school to send my people to prison." I don't understand this. A person who goes to law school should hope to seek justice for victims, to defend those who are innocent, and to prosecute those who are guilty. There should never been any discrimination or favoritism based on the color of a persons skin. Anyone is capable of committing a crime, because the person is black does not mean they should be allowed to not be punished. All men are created equal, every person should be treated equally in the law.

The other man who worked with Butler in D.C. had a brilliant comment. "You either have law or you don't. It is anarchy to suggest that a jury should ignore that law and acquit someone because they think it is fundamentally unfair."

When Butler was asked if Irish defendant should only be tried by Irish jurors, and Jewish defendants should only be tried by Jewish jurors, his response was astonishing. Coming from a person who speaks of unjust and hatred, what he said I just don't understand. "Those ethnic groups haven't had the same hatred visited upon them as African Americans." Apparently Butler only thinks about one race and forgets about the hatred that people experienced during the times of immigration and what Jewish experienced during the Holocaust.

Jury nullification would only increase crimes. If a person knows they won't be convicted, then what is stopping them from committing crimes from the start?

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Tipping the Scales The law is created for the people not for a race or ... View the full answer