Juries Need to Take a Stand against State-Sponsored Violence

"Do you mean to tell me, that if there was a law against state attorneys using blue pens and you found incontrovertible evidence that I was using blue pens, you could not follow the law and render a guilty verdict based on the evidence alone?" A few years ago, I found myself sitting in a jury booth as a prosecutor questioned me.

"What Twilight Zone creep show is this? How do these perfectly normal and nice people raise families with this kind of thinking?"

The air sucked out of the courtroom as its assembled human beings-including other prospective jurists, a judge, and a defendant-waited for my answer.

"No," I replied.

"Why would I put a human being in a cage for using a blue pen? That is a nonviolent act and there is no victim, so why would I forcibly confine someone for that?" I continued.

I heard a couple quiet gasps break the tight silence.

"Ok, thank you very much," the state attorney concluded.

Shockingly, I was not chosen to sit on the jury.

The American Courtroom

I remember thinking to myself, "What Twilight Zone creep show is this? How do these perfectly normal and nice people raise families with this kind of thinking?"

I saw the heart of the state's logic laid bare before my eyes. If the state authority says something is illegal, who are we to say no. It is shocking, in the eyes of ordinary citizens, for a person to say, "No, if a law outlaws...