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Comment by mikeash | Hacker News Reader

In Virginia, felony larceny starts at $200, easily within coat range. I once had jury duty and was faced with the prospect of sentencing the defendant to up to 20 years in prison for the crime of receiving stolen goods valued at least $200. I got rejected from the jury, probably because I said I couldn’t possibly consider 20 years in prison for that.

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Jury nullification is still definitely a thing. The trick is actually getting on the jury.

Yep the fastest way to get the kick off a jury is to mention your support for jury nullification. Sometime it's the judge that will dismissed you insted if one of the lawyers.

I feel like at that point, it'd be morally correct to lie to get into the jury...

My English might fail me here, but if you think about a 20 year sentence and find it not adequate to the crime, wouldn't you have "considered" it?

I can understand why the question is asked though. The jury is there to find facts, i.e. define what has happened. The judge will then find the "correct" sentence if found guilty. The jury should not be swayed to a not guilty finding if they believe a guilty would be correct, just because the possible maximum sentence is too long, even if it would not be imposed in the case at hand anyway.

Virginia is unique here. Juries perform sentencing, not just finding of guilt. That’s why they asked the question.

Interesting. It certainly brings the risk of vengeful sentencing. But that brings me back to my original question: Would they have lied if they would have said "I would consider 20 years", already having made up their mind about it?

I may not be quoting the lawyer exactly, and there’s probably specialized legal meaning as well. The net result, at least as I understood it, was that they were asking if we would be able to consider the full range of sentences after having seen all the evidence and heard all the testimony. Basically, trying to screen out people who have already made up their minds, like they might try to screen out people who have already decided that the accused is guilty.

I was hoping that my discussion of how absurd that sentence was might influence the jurors who actually made it on.

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