The Cincinnati Beacon - FIJA: Fully Informed Jury Association

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

FIJA: Fully Informed Jury Association

Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

A friend recently sent me a link to the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA), and I found the premise of the organization refreshing in how it gives hope to regular citizens who are called to jury duty to, in essence, overthrow what they view as unjust laws.

From their ”About” page:

The FIJA mission is to educate Americans regarding their full powers as jurors, including their ability to rely on personal conscience, to judge the merit of the law and its application, and to nullify bad law, when necessary for justice, by finding for the defendant.

(...)

When every American juror is aware of and permitted to exercise all of his and her rights, the final judgment of law will return to where it was always intended to be located...in the hands of the people. Once again our jury system will function as our country’s founders intended to function--as people’s final check against the government’s tendency to encroach upon the rights of its people.

The group also has a ”document library,” with downloads entitled things like “Handing out FIJA Literature Around Courthouses.” Here’s an excerpt:

FIJA activists should make it clear that they are only passing out information of general interest to all citizens, and are not trying to influence any particular case. No case-specific literature should be distributed with FIJA literature to anyone who might be a prospective juror. FIJA literature, which informs jurors of their rights and powers in general terms and which seeks reform of the judicial process, is protected speech under the First Amendment.

One might wonder what sort of effect some FIJA-inspired activists might have on Cincinnati’s legal landscape, if local jurors became aware of such concepts.

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