Brief filed: 11/23/2018
Documents
United States v. Lynch
9th Circuit Court of Appeals; Case No. 10-50219 & 10-50264
Prior Decision
Panel decision 903 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. Sept. 13, 2018), appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Argument(s)
The independence of citizen juries is a well-established and crucial feature of our legal and constitutional history. The panel majority erred in upholding the district court’s instruction suggesting that Lynch’s jury could be punished for engaging in nullification. Protecting jury independence is all the more important because of the vanishingly small role that jury trials play in our criminal justice system.
Author(s)
Clark M. Neily III and Jay R. Schweikert, Cato Institute, Washington, DC; Robin E. Wechkin, Sidley Austin LLP, Seattle, WA.
