You may recall my writing about fellow Libertarian candidate Julian Heicklen, whom I met for the first time at Porcfest last June. I wrote that the man has been arrested 33 times over the years in support of various pro-liberty causes. My blog post about him is here.
Make that 34 times.
He attempted to get arrested on the way home from Porcfest, stopping to pamphleteer for the Fully Informed Jury Association in front of the Springfield, Mass. courthouse. Thankfully officials there decided to respect the 1st amendment and declined to arrest him.
Tireless agitator that he is, Julian travelled to Orlando Fla., where FIJA activist Mark Schmidter had recently been arrest for the same “offense” (I think they call it jury tampering or some such nonsense). Julian set to work and was arrested Aug 22. Here is a video of the arrest.
Anyway he refused to cooperate at trial and was sentenced Sept 1 to 145 days on some sort of contempt charge. He has just been released on $12,000 bond pending his appeal.
The power of juries to nullify bad laws, or refuse to apply laws in certain cases, is one of the pillars of our freedom. As a defense against the imposition of tyranny, it is as important as any of the amendments in the bill of rights. And we have the 1st amendment right to inform potential jurors that they have this power. Despite what judges and prosecutors say, juries are not there to simply decide on the facts of the case. Juries exist to see that justice is done and are not “required” to convict anyone. They can and must vote their conscience and must know they have that power.
Thank you Julian Heicklen and thank you Mark Schmidter.
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