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Media ContactJames Babb jamesbabb@mac.com 610 574 1222

Jury Rights Activists Campaign to End Victimless Crimes Prosecutions in New York City in 2015

(New York, NY, December 22, 2014)Jury rights activists from New York City and surrounding areas are converging on Manhattan this January with the goal of ending the prosecution of victimless crimes in the city.

The campaign consists of phone kiosk advertising and jury nullification pamphleting in the area around the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan. An online educational effort at the website www.JRP.io complements the main campaign.

Jurors have the inherent right and unquestionable power to judge not just the facts of a case but also the law the defendant is accused of violating. Jurors can vote Not Guilty when they conscientiously believe a just verdict requires it, even if they believe the law has technically been broken.

All jurors in the United States have this right still today, but many are completely unaware of it. Jury nullification occurs when jurors vote to acquit even though they believe the defendant is guilty. Jury nullification is an indisputable fact of American jurisprudence that is regularly, if quietly, practiced today.

If you are selected for jury duty, the normal instinct is to find a way out of it, said project facilitator James Babb. But jury duty gives you the incredible opportunity to stop wrongful imprisonment and government tyranny.

Jurors are not required to check their consciences at the courthouse door, said Kirsten Tynan, executive director of the Fully Informed Jury Association. But they wont hear this once they are inside. In fact, a prospective juror who does not agree to abandon their conscience and uphold laws they find unjust or unjustly applied will almost certainly be excluded from the jury.

In 2011, 86% of federal prisoners -- hundreds of thousands of mostly minority Americans -- were in a cage due to victimless crimes, said George Donnelly of the Jury Rights Project. It is the urgent call of our times to stop ruining good peoples lives over victimless crimes such as drug offenses. And we can do it using the rights we already have, in the more than 800-year-old institution of the jury box.

Many of us were inspired by former Penn State professor Dr. Julian Heicklen, who has travelled the nation to inform potential jurors of their right to nullify bad laws. We want to build on his work, said Babb. Court employees at 500 Pearl Street were particularly violent and cruel to Dr. Heicklen. I am eager to return and make a difference in this hellish vacuum of justice.

Activists aim to run the campaign during at least the month of January and are seeking donors and volunteers to assist in continuing the effort indefinitely via a crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo.com.

More InformationMain website: JuryRightsProject.com/NYCCrowdfunding campaign: igg.me/at/NYCJuryRights2015Online educational effort: www.JRP.ioFull Informed Jury Association: FIJA.org