Joel Amaral
University of Phoenix
Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice
CJA/344
George Marquez
August 14, 2014
Jury Nullification Paper
Jury nullification is “a jury’s knowing and deliberate rejection of the evidence or refusal to apply the law either because the jury wants to send a message about some social issue that is larger than the case itself or because the result dictated by law is contrary to the jury’s sense of justice, morality, or fairness” (Keneally, 2010, p. 942). Nowadays ethnicity does not influence courtroom proceedings and judicial practices. Mainly is money that influences such. On the flipside, the jury has to be diverse so that the decision is unbiased.
Money moves the decisions of how trials go. If you have a poor African American on a murder trial, given, if it goes that far, most of the time he would be found guilty even if it were in self-defense. If the defendant were a wealthy white person, the jury would find a way of how it was justified, as it was in the case of State of Florida v. George Zimmerman. He was found not guilty under the stand your …show more content…
Arguably, if the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman case was the other way around, State of Florida v. Trayvon Martin, Trayvon Martin would be facing prison time. This is the problem with the courts. I think that the only way to solve this is to have the jurors, and judged blindfolded during cases, this way they couldn’t see what race the defendant is and could possible make it a fair trial, or simply never have the parties present in front of judges or jurors. I believe that if the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman case was done this way, George Zimmerman would have served some time in prison, how is it that this person can get away with murder, when another person in the same situation cannot just because of his or her