The ability to ignore a law, because 12 people find the law to be unjust, is a scary concept. Take for example the case of Emmett Till; Till, was a fourteen year old African American from Chicago. He was brutally murdered for the simple offense of accused of flirtation with a white woman. This flirtation occurred four days before his death. The woman’s husband and brother, brutally beat him, gouged out his eyes, and shot him, before discarding his body into the river. The jury took less than an hour to nullify the defendants, who later admitted to the crime.
Jury nullification for a crime such as this, may appear to be one that would only occur in a different era. However, in modern times “George Washington University law professor Paul Butler recommends that black jurors free black defendants prosecuted for minor drug crimes even if they are guilty — what he calls "racially based jury nullification." (Chicagotribune) Another example of the potential misuse that jury nullification poses is that of a jury who chose to release a man charged with the cultivation of marijuana, when his defense argued that the law was “unfair”