Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

The answers to these questions are clear but not widely known. Juries are completely free to return any verdict they wish to return. Juries are not constrained in this by the law. There is no penalty for coming to whatever verdict the jury wishes to come to. Coming to a verdict which is at odds with the letter of the law is called jury nullification. Juries can, in effect, nullify the law. Juries, in regard to their verdicts, are free of the law and of judicial instruction. Jury nullification is n