New Hampshire Jury Information

John Connell 54, Pastor of the Peaceful Assembly Church of Grafton ,NH  has been informing jurors of their rights for about 20 years. He began doing this while living and working in Salem, Massachusetts fulltime. Upon learning years ago that juror’s were routinely misled by unscrupulous government employees and often ignorant of what their rightful powers are, he decided to act.

Connell was a regional coordinator for FIJA or the Fully Informed Jury Association for several years in the 1990s. Additionally he has provided testimony at State Legislative hearings as well as enaging the public regularly regarding “jury nullification topics. Lately he’s taken to sporting some signs along route 4 touting NHJury.com. (thanks John!) . Both of these organizations, FIJA.ORG and NHJury.com focus on raising awareness of jurors and the public in general.
No matter what the brand is, John reasoned that the primary goal, to inform people of the proper role of a juror is so important that he’s spent countless hours and lots of his own money over the years trying to achieve this. We whole heartedly commend all of those efforts.

Recently Pastor John authored a town warrant article:

To see if the Town shall notify the voters of Grafton of their natural and historic right and responsibility as jurors, sitting on juries in all cases including grand juries, to judge the law as well as the facts before them, a right recognized by the State of New Hampshire with the passage of HB146 (Laws of 2012, c.243) and codified as RSA 519:23-a, which states that “in all criminal proceedings the court shall permit the defense to inform the jury of its right to judge the facts and the application of the law in relation to the facts in controversy.” The information shall be sent by the Town to all voters individually via first-class mail, and shall be prepared entirely by volunteers, information which may include pamphlets prepared by the Fully Informed Jury Association, a federally-recognized 501(c)(3) organization. All costs shall be paid using voluntarily raised funds.

John figured that since runaway government had kept jurors knowledge of their rights in the shadows, he’d use the town warrant article process to heal the damage done.  Connell thinks this idea may catch on and other peaceful individuals may want to try this in their town. He mentioned he’d be happy to show people how easily they could do this too, just contact him at John@Peacefulassemblychurch.org. or (603) 523-7111.

The warrant article got a lot of votes, but in the end it didn’t pass. Undaunted Connell intends to see this project thru. He’ll use his personal funds along with a few donations from friends and supporters.

Please join NHJury.com in giving John a big thumbs up and consider giving a small donation to help fund this project. You might save an innocent person.

Under the Obama Administration raids and prosecutions of such controlled substances as medical marijuana and raw milk have only increased. Apparently, so has the knowledge among jurors in New Hampshire as well as other states of the power of jurors to acquit their neighbors. Any individual juror can do this by following the dictates of his or her conscience rather than those of people calling themselves government.

To wit, there is a trial scheduled for 7 January 2013 for Wisconsin farmer Vernon Hershberger, on charges that include operating a retail food establishment, farm and dairy plant without licences, and violating a hold order placed on his dairy products after a raid on his farm.

The good news for Hershberger is that momentum and precedent is on his side. In late September, Minnesota farmer Alvin Shlangen was acquitted through jury nullification, having faced three misdemeanor counts of selling unpasteurized milk, operating without a food license and handling adulterated or misbranded food.

Whatever one’s opinion may be about raw versus pasteurized milk, the deeper question remains: Is it any of the state’s business what people (that means you, dear reader) peaceably buy, sell, trade, produce or put in their own bodies?

Free Stater Cathleen Converse and other jurors told the state of New Hampshire that a local Rastafarian neighbor was “NOT GUILTY” of growing illegal plants.

The following article, written by Carla Gericke, President of the Free State Project, was featured in Lew Rockwell’s highly acclaimed blog.

Jury nullification plays a vital role in a healthy legal system. It allows people to vote their conscience and nullify bad laws, thus sending a strong message to legislators. This is how alcohol prohibition was overthrown. This is how marijuana prohibition will be overthrown.

On April 13, 2011, a jury in New Hampshire’s Grafton County Superior Court brought residents one step closer to this reality. Bob Constantine, a fifty-two year old man with a bushy white moustache and the slow gait of a man with bad hips, was charged on September 4, 2009 with two felonies for “Manufacturing a Controlled Substance,” and one misdemeanor count of marijuana possession.

It’s not just New Hampshire where the idea of Jury Nullification has come. Read this second article at LewRockwell.com in one week on the power of the juror.

We must close with the enemy and battle him in every arena, including in the courtroom. Give Leviathan no safe place, no place to let down his guard, and instead take the fight straight to him in a place where he thought he was supreme and could not be defeated. One juror, just one, can shut down all the gears, all the levers, and all the apparatus of unjust power, and make it stop. One juror can throw a critical monkey-wrench into the works. And if enough jurors do that, the cursed machine will be prevented from working at all. Just you, a lone liberty guerrilla, in a peaceful, bloodless, mini-revolution of conscience, can drive a dagger into the soft underbelly of the beast and set someone free. Talk about focus of effort! There can be no better time spent in the struggle to directly stop oppression.

Indeed. Only the most ignorant would deny that oppression and tyranny is upon us. Now it’s only a matter of degrees. The courtroom is the front line between Liberty and tyranny.

As reported at FreeKeene.com, the jury nullification bill HB 146 is up for a state senate vote this Wednesday, 1 June 2011.

If this bill passes and is signed into law it would mean all the activism being done outside of court houses meant to inform potential jury members of their right to nullify a law would be done inside every court room where a jury is present. “In all court proceedings the court shall instruct the jury of its right to judge the facts and the application of the law in relationship to the facts in controversy.”

Stand by for further update.