Jury nullification, state by state
Understand your civil power. A guide to jury nullification.
Judges tell juries one thing. The law lets them do another. See the gap in every U.S. state, plus D.C. and the federal courts, explained in plain English and backed by official sources.
- 52 jurisdictions
- 100% official sources
- 30 day recheck cycle
Featured
Federal Courts
- The Constitution gives the jury a role in judging the lawNo
- Jurors are told they must follow the lawYes
- Criminal verdicts must be unanimousYes
Why JuryNull
What the guide is
Purely Objective
No activist agendas and no legal advice. Just the unvarnished, verifiable facts about what the law says and what it prohibits.
Plain English
Written for jurors, defendants, and the curious, not for lawyers. Every term of art gets explained in ordinary words.
Jurisdictions
All fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the federal system, each answering the same questions so they can be compared side by side.
Verified Sources
Every citation points at the official government text, and every link is checked automatically so you are never sent to a dead page.
Day Cycle
The law moves. The guide is built from the primary sources themselves and rechecked on a monthly cycle.
Precedents
The trials and rulings that shaped the jury's power over its verdict, from 1670 to 1968, each told from its record. Read them free.
Clear Structure
We do the heavy lifting of organizing the law. Because the rules vary wildly from state to state, we map out exactly what applies in your jurisdiction.
Constitutions
What each constitution says about trial by jury, the verdict, and the jury's role, quoted as written.
Find your state
Choose your state
Pick yours for a free overview. The complete guide has all 52 chapters in the same six parts, so you can compare any state with another.
- Hover a state to see its at-a-glance answers.
- Click it to open that state's free overview.
- Get the guide for the full chapter.
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Federal Courts
Inside the guide
What it contains
Every chapter has the same six parts, in the same order, for all 52 jurisdictions.
Jury selection
Before a trial starts, the judge and the lawyers question the people called to serve. This step is called voir dire. Each chapter sets out the reasons the state's law gives for removing a juror, and the ones that turn on a juror's own views about the law or the case.
What the judge tells you
At the end of a trial, the judge reads the jury its instructions. Each chapter covers what those jury instructions ask of a juror, including the duty to follow the law as the judge explains it. It also covers what happens when a juror disagrees with one of them.
Protections and risks
Whether a juror can be punished for the verdict they return, and what keeps the talk in the jury room private. Each chapter also covers what state law says about people outside the trial who try to sway a juror, which is often called jury tampering.
The law in plain English
Each chapter takes the statutes, court rules and constitutional text behind it and explains them in everyday words. Legal terms link to a free glossary, so a word like voir dire or acquittal never stops you. You can read the law without a law degree.
Official state resources
Links to the official texts behind each chapter, such as the state code, the court rules, the pattern jury instructions and the court system's page for people called to jury duty. Each link goes to the official source, so you can read the full text for yourself.
Get the guide
Get the complete guide
Every state, D.C. and the federal courts in one PDF, written in plain English with links to the official sources. One-time purchase, instant digital download.
The complete guide
$39.99 one-time
- All 52 chapters in one download
- Every state, D.C. and the federal courts
- The same six parts in every chapter, so you can compare any two states
- Free updates when the law changes
A single state
$19.99 one-time
- One state's full chapter
- The same six parts as every chapter
- Free updates when the law changes
Every jurisdiction