Jury Nulification Paper

Influences in courtroom proceedings and judicial practices have always seemed to be a concern to many different ethnical groups. Even today if a defendant is a minority in a courtroom and sees a jury of a predominately singular race, they will feel somewhat intimidated even if they know in their heart they are not guilty. In the past, those of African American and Latino decent appeared to have very low opinions of law enforcement, therefore opinions of courtroom proceedings would be low as well. That consensus does not stop there, according to King, Ryan, Johnson, Kecia, and McGeever "the consequences of a more racially and ethnically diverse pool of lawyers for the administration of justice have not received significant attention". What this tells us is ethnicity influences courtroom proceedings and judicial practices.

Based on past surveys conducted by the National Center for State Courts, African Americans in particular feel they will be not be received fairly in a court of law and or subject to some level of unfairness McNamara, R., & Burns, R. (2009). In the past most courtrooms, bailiffs, stenographers and juries where made up mostly of Caucasian individuals. African Americans and other minority groups would automatically feel they had little if any chance of redemption before these court officials. Even when minority officials started to become prevalent in the courtroom setting, African Americans felt those assuming such influential roles where pressured by those in higher positions to act on the best interest of the law makers and not on their behalf. Additionally, there was the feeling that some minorities in influential roles had an obligation to make examples out of those who were brought before them.

An ethnicity based jury can be viewed as beneficial in certain cases, especially those that involve abuse of authority against a minority. When the jury consist mostly of minorities in a case like that where the majority of them have personal knowledge of an individual who has been a participant in such a situation or has personally been involved in a similar situation can relate to the person on trial, making them a homogenous jury. Their experiences can yield empathy for the defendant due to a feeling of being united by the experience.

On the other hand the law is not being honored in the above depicted situation. If the defendant is guilty or thought to raise reasonable doubt to anyone on the jury, the jury would not be following the orders of the judge. The general consensus could possibly indicate a verdict was reached based on ethnic stereotypes. In more high profile courtroom cases such as the O.J. Simpson and Rodney King trials the though of jury nullification was present. According to Marder (1999) "nullification can be used to undermine a verdict by questioning it legitimacy". In the O.J. Simpson trial several jurors expressed feelings of reasonable doubt