New Hampshire House Passes Jury Nullification Bill

In a cross-post on the Volokh Conspiracy and Foundation for Economic Education websites, Eugene Volokh briefly analyzes a jury nullification bill that was passed by the New Hampshire House of Representatives:

Last week, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 184 to 145 to pass a bill that would require courts to instruct jurors about jury nullification — the jurors’ power to refuse to convict even when they think all the elements of the crime have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt . . .

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The new bill, if enacted, would presumably require the New Hampshire Supreme Court to decide whether jury nullification instructions were indeed unconstitutional. Of course, if the court does so decide, the legislature and the voters can amend that Constitution, though it would require a three-fifths vote of each house of the legislature and then a two-thirds vote of the electorate.

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