Judge in Rich Paul Case Undermines Informed Jury Law with Misinformation in Jury Instructions

Helena, MT—A Cheshire County, New Hampshire jury convicted local marijuana and liberty activist Rich Paul today on five felony counts of victimless drug charges. Paul had disputed one of the charges on the facts and had openly pursued jury nullification on the other four charges, which involved the sale of small amounts of marijuana. The buyer turned out to be an FBI-paid informant who had entrapped Paul in exchange for leniency for his own heroin offense.

In 2012, New Hampshire passed HB 146, a fully informed jury bill, which guaranteed defendants the ability in court “to inform the jury of its right to judge the facts and the application of the law in relation to the facts in controversy.” The measure took effect on January 1 of this year.

While the defense did make the case for jury nullification, the judge undermined the intent of the law through misinformation in the instructions he issued to the jury. An attendee at the trial reported on the Free Keene Facebook page that, “Judge John C. Kissinger is reading jury instructions, where he is emphasizing the word “I” in his claim that the jury “must follow the law as *I* explain it”.”

Iloilo Jones, Executive Director of the Fully Informed Jury Association comments that, “This is a case in which a dishonest judge committed perjury in the instructions, by speaking against the authority of the jurors of New Hampshire. He used the influence of office and costume to persuade uninformed jurors to sacrifice the authority of conscience and the true role of jurors. Judge Kissinger intoned once again from the robe of office to confuse and convince the intimidated jurors to obey the laws of the government. It is no surprise that completely confused jurors would scatter in disarray before the overwhelming and intimidating power of the state.”

Read more at http://fija.org/2013/04/18/judge-in-rich-paul-case-undermines-jury-nulli...