A JURY IS A LAW UNTO ITSELF (1 of 4)

Editor -- Judge Quentin Kopp correctly proclaims that jurors have no right
to ignore the law in refusing to convict (Letters, March 8), but he should
have added that jurors have the power to do that and that no one, robed or
otherwise, can do anything about it. A federal court has even described
jury nullification as "a fundamental necessity of a democratic system."

Jury nullification frustrates folks who fear anarchy, but it ought to
comfort them that it is rarely applied and has not caused anarchy. In fact,
courts and commentators have acknowledged that anarchy is far less
threatening than unjust convictions and punishments, such as incarcerating
a person who grew marijuana for medical purposes under the auspices of a
city government or sending a petty thief to prison for life. On the other
hand, in days gone by, juries in the Deep South routinely used the power to
let racist murderers go free and in more recent times in California it may
have been applied in the trial of a sports figure who stood accused of a
double-murder.

L.M. WIJSEN

Alameda