CaliforniaJury Nullification
In California the judge explains the law and the jury is the only judge of the facts. Every criminal jury hears an instruction about what to do when a juror disagrees with the law. The state constitution sets a jury of twelve in felony cases. A criminal verdict stands only when no juror disagrees.
Overview
Juries in California
California law makes jurors the only judges of the facts and of whether a witness is believable. The law itself comes from the judge, and a criminal verdict stands only when no juror disagrees.
Every California criminal jury hears the same instruction near the start of the trial. It tells jurors what to do when they disagree with the law. What it says, and what it leaves untouched, is in the California chapter of the guide.
The state constitution sets a jury of twelve for felony cases. California gets to a unanimous verdict in its own way. After the verdict is read, each juror can be asked whether it is theirs. What happens when one of them says no is in the chapter.
The California chapter
What's in the Guide for California?
Jury selection
California law lets either side ask to remove a possible juror for actual bias. The chapter explains what the statute means by that, and how it applies to a juror's views about the law.
What the judge tells you
What the instruction read to every California criminal jury says about disagreeing with the law, and what state law says about who judges the facts.
How the verdict works
What happens when a California jury is polled and one juror says the verdict is not theirs, and why the three-fourths verdict in the state constitution does not apply to a criminal trial.
Protections and risks
What protects a California juror after the verdict, the warning a judge has to repeat at every break in the trial, and what state law says about outside attempts to influence a juror.
The law in plain English
The California laws behind the chapter in everyday words. They include the Penal Code sections on instructing the jury, on warnings to jurors, on polling the verdict and on influencing a juror, the statute on challenges for cause, and the jury section of the state constitution.
Official state resources
Links to California's official sources, each one checked. They cover the state codes and constitution on the legislature's site, the Judicial Council's criminal jury instructions, and the courts' jury service page.
Your summons
Called for Jury Duty in California?
A jury summons in California calls you to your county's court to help decide the facts of a case. In a felony trial the jury is twelve people.
The Judicial Branch of California has a Jury Service page. It covers reporting, who can serve, and how to ask to be excused.
That page covers getting there. What actual bias means in jury selection, what the judge will tell you about the law, and what happens when a jury is polled are covered in the California chapter of the guide.
Your California summons
- Sent byThe county jury commissioner
- Names come fromVoter rolls, the driver's license and ID card list, and state tax filers
- It asks you toCome to your county's court and help decide the facts of a case
- Jury size12 (felony); 12 or fewer by agreement (misdemeanor)