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It can also go the other way, with a jury convicting someone even though they don't believe the person is guilty.

Some say this would not be a problem because unlike in an acquittal the judge can overturn a guilt verdict. That's not a convincing argument because much of what a jury does is decide which of believable but conflicting witness accounts to believe. The judge often has no way to distinguish between the jurors found the prosecution witnesses more believable (and so the judge should let the conviction stand) and the jurors found the defense witnesses more believable but decided to convict anyway because they didn't like something about the defendant such as their race, or bad things they did not relevant to the crime they are being tried for (and so the judge should acquit the defendant).




Not really since a court can overturn a verdict without a second trial by jury. A jury nullification can't be overturned by a court.

You'd have to abolish double jeopardy if you wanted equivalence.


Aside: England and Wales abolished DP in 2005 for serious crimes: (“two conditions: the retrial must be approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Court of Appeal must agree to quash the original acquittal due to "new and compelling evidence"). Prior to that, innocent verdicts could be appealed for jury / witness tampering, etc.


Yes, that's the corresponding miscarriage of justice during that era where white juries would acquit lynchers.

See George Stinney Jr. for an example.




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