Chuck Temple is a professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, where he is director of the criminal practice clinic. In his 27 years of practice, he said, he has always asked judges to instruct juries about nullification — but has never had a judge do so.
Temple said the new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, “changes the landscape of how criminal cases will be argued.”
Before, he said, “in the vast majority of criminal cases, there would be no arguments regarding jury nullification. ... Now, it's going to be an everyday occurrence in criminal jury trials.”
The language of the new law is “rather inartful,” never actually mentioning nullification, Temple said. Still, he expects defense lawyers will start telling jurors about it right away; he plans to raise it in a trial set to start Monday in Merrimack County Superior Court.
“I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't,” he said. “It's just another seed I can plant in their minds in terms of what the fair thing to do is in a criminal case.”
