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The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) is a United States national jury education organization, incorporated in the state of Montana as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. FIJA works to educate all citizens on their authority when they serve as jurors. FIJA educates the public, provides commentary on current jury-related cases, and assists defendants with jury authority strategies—including the right to veto bad laws and the misapplication of laws—by refusing to convict the defendant. The organization was formed in the summer of 1989 by Larry Dodge, a Montana businessman and (former Chair of the Montana Libertarian party ), and his friend Don Doig. They formed FIJA following discussions about forming such a group at the (National Libertarian Party convention in Philadelphia in 1989. ) In the U.S., every defendant in a criminal case has the right, under Article III, Section 2 and the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to be tried by an impartial jury. If the defendant is acquitted, the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment forbids the government from putting him or her on trial again. FIJA advises jurors to vote for acquittal if they disagree with the law, even if they believe the defendant committed the crime he or she is charged with. This concept is known as jury nullification. In August 2005, Nancy Lord, David Brody, Gary Dusselgee and Clay Conrad all retired from the FIJA board at the same time. Julie Sheppard was named as the new Chair, and Don Doig, Phil Graf and Margi Crook were named to the Board. ==Activism== FIJA has lobbied state legislatures to enact legislation that would explicitly elevate the jury's formerly unspoken power to nullify to an openly acknowledged right. On June 18, 2012, New Hampshire passed a law explicitly allowing defense attorneys to inform juries about Jury Nullification. FIJA has also proposed abolishing the juror's oath. FIJA has also launched a "Challenge for Churches" program of jury seminars, focusing on "serving justice through conscience."〔http://fija.org/2010/03/23/challenge-for-churches-serving-justice-through-conscience/〕 FIJA has also launched a "Lunch Break for Liberty" program to encourage people to use their lunch break to hand out FIJA pamphlets.〔http://dev.fija.org/2010/06/11/freedom-friday-lunch-break-for-liberty-online-3/〕 FIJA activists have demonstrated outside courthouses and handed out literature to potential jurors in hundreds of cases. They have generally not been arrested for doing so. FIJA speculates that this may be because "prosecutors have reasoned (correctly) that if they arrest fully informed jury leafleters, the leaflets will have to be given to the leafleter's own jury as evidence."〔http://www.fija.org/docs/JG_If_You_are_Facing_Charges.pdf〕 FIJA and its activists have been involved in litigation over these matters. Another argument is that since FIJA literature is generic, making no reference to any cases potential jurors may be called upon to serve on, its distribution is not jury tampering.〔 In dismissing an activist's lawsuit for false arrest for disorderly conduct, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit stated, "Although advocacy of jury nullification could no more be flatly forbidden than advocacy of Marxism, nudism, or Satanism, we cannot think of a more reasonable regulation of the time, place, and manner of speech than to forbid its advocacy in a courthouse." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fully Informed Jury Association」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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