New “Great Ideas”

NHJury.com has been running an ongoing contest looking for ideas to help us start the organization. We have a grant of $500, provided by the Civil Disobedience Evolution Fund. With this, we have been awarding up to $50 for ideas that make sense to the goal of starting NHJury.com. This week, we are announcing two ideas that we like:

  • SteveZ suggested that we buy Google Adwords for terms such as “how to get out of jury duty” and target them at people in New Hampshire. This idea earned SteveZ 30 bucks.
  • Andrew recommended an approach to fundraising proffered by Freakonomics. The suggestion was that a “one-on-one exclusiveness” model be used. An example could be a raffle winner would have a one-on-one lunch or dinner with some libertarian luminary at Liberty Forum or Porcfest. Andrew gets 50 bucks for this idea.

Keep those Great Ideas coming. We’ll accept any idea, but if you have ideas on how to raise money, you’ll could be awarded more money from the CD Evolution grant.

And if you have lots of Great Ideas and some time, our Executive Director position is still open. It’s a paid position, by the way. You could do well by doing good!

The Sriracha Guy Reports on Jury Outreach in Dover, NH

The Sriracha Guy Reports on Jury Outreach in Dover, NH

Dover Outreach

Dover Jury Outreach Crew

Randy Clemens is a new mover to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. Prior to moving here, he’d never heard of Jury Nullification. Now he’s an active part of the new outreach project happening at Strafford superior court in Dover, NH. Randy is also known as “The Sriracha Guy”. Here’s his blog on this week’s successful and first-ever jury outreach in Dover. If you want to join in the fun, please join the New Hampshire Juror Outreach group on facebook.

“It is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts; it is, on the other hand, presumed that courts are the best judges of law. But still both objects are within your power of decision… you [juries] have a right to take it upon yourselves to judge both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy.” —John Jay, first U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, State of Georgia v. Brailsford (1794)

You’re out on a leisurely walk in the city one day, simply going about your business and keeping to yourself, when… crap! People handing out informational literature. Uggghh. Don’t they have anything better to do? You’ve clearly spotted them and worse yet, they spotted you spotting them! Good luck escaping their tractor beam now!

Potential jurors receive Jury Nullification information from volunteers with the Free State Project and Rights Brigade

You briefly consider reaching for your cell phone to pretend to take a call, but it’s too late. It’s clear that there’s no way to weasel out of accepting their disruptive pamphlet, so you force a polite, acknowledging smile, or construct a curious, inquisitive glance as you take the propaganda from their outstretched hand, feigning interest juuuuuussstt until you’re out of their field of view (probably), at which point you can safely discard whatever it was they were peddling without looking like a terrible, close-minded person.

Sound familiar? Or is that just the process that usually runs through my head when I see someone handing out unsolicited pamphlets? (To be fair, it is usually promotional garbage trying to get us to buy something, or telling us we’re going to some version of hell if we don’t repent for our existence, etc.) Well, even despite my less-than-savory feelings about this method of interpersonal exchange, I was actually on the other side of it for the first time this week, volunteering my time to help spread awareness of an incredible right that we as Americans possess, but simply aren’t informed of: jury nullification of law. (more…)

Will NH House Pass Improved Jury Nullification Bill?

As you may know, in late 2014 the NH supreme court decided against Rich Paul’s appeal, claiming the “jury nullification” bill of 2012 was not in point-of-fact, a jury nullification bill. Turns out the 2012 law was gutted prior to passing and the rejected wording was more like JR Hoell’s 2015 edition of the bill, HB 470. Hoell’s bill was heard this week by the NH house judiciary committee. Here’s the full video of the hearing, which in addition to liberty-loving activists speaking, includes the “justice” bureaucrats trying their best to dissuade the committee from supporting having the jury being informed of their full rights: