Website Promotes Jury Nullification for Killing Health Care CEO

WASHINGTON - Dec. 21, 2024 - PRLog -- A major legal website, in discussing and explaining the concept of jury nullification, seems to be actually promoting it for Luigi Mangione
There's Fresh Interest In Informing Potential Jurors About Jury Nullification A purely academic enterprise, I'm sure (https://abovethelaw.com/2024/12/theres-fresh-interest-in-informing-potential-jurors-about-jury-nullification/)

It argues that "the guy is so likable that, evidence be damned, getting a guilty verdict could be a real uphill battle."
The author of the piece then explains:

"When the time comes for juries to decide the fate of the defendant, they are told by the judge if they are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crimes that they have been accused of, they must return a verdict of guilty. Thing is, that must there is all bark and no bite. Juries cannot be punished for the verdict(s) that they hand down and double jeopardy prevents the prosecution from just re-accusing the defendant until they find a jury willing to say guilty. Ipso facto, a jury cannot be punished for handing in a verdict of not guilty even if they have no reasonable doubts that the accused committed the crimes they were accused of."

The author then notes "you can't just tell your fellow jurors — or even jurors sitting on other trials — that they should just ignore whatever the prosecution is doing and nullify. But what you CAN do is inform the general public about the power and see what happens."

And informing the general public how they can keep this "attractive folk hero [being changed into] a dangerous superhero who threatens to save us all from healthcare woes" from being convicted seems to be what the author is in fact doing, suggests public interest law professor John Banzhaf

Banzhaf previously predicted the same sentiment, but suggested that Mangione wasn't such a sympathetic defendant than all twelve jurors would violate their oath and vote him "not guilty."

Perhaps the situation would be different, and sympathy and support for him would be much stronger, if his mother had died because an insurance company wrongfully denied coverage for her care.  But here the defendant and his family were very wealthy, and his major health problem seems to be with a back which operations were unable to cure, not that a denial of coverage caused or even failed to correct his back problem, says Banzhaf.

Rather the law professor predicted that one of more - but not all twelve - jurors would refuse to vote for an acquittal.  The result, he said, is thus more likely to be a hung jury under the doctrine of jurOR nullification that a complete acquittal under the related doctrine of juRY nullification.

http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf