If There's a Case Against the Efficacy of Jury Nullification ...

... this is it.

Adam Mueller, a/k/a Ademo Freeman, taped the comments of "public officials" in response to questions about their performance of their "public duties."

For this, he was charged with "wiretapping."

The charges were so transparently bullshit, he was so clearly in the right and those accusing him of a crime were so clearly in the wrong, that there was just no way to reasonably expect anything less than a hung jury, with outright acquittal a strong possibility, even absent any "fully informed jury" activities -- and I'm under the impression that such activities did take place.

Nonetheless he was convicted, and after less than an hour of jury deliberation to boot.

I have a great deal of respect for Adam. I've met him (at a blogger conference a few years back when he was wrapping up the "Motorhome Diaries" project). I think he's a swell guy and a hell of an activist.  I wish I knew him well enough to call him "friend" without devaluing the word. I'm glad that he will be caged for "only" three months versus the 21-year potential maximum, and I suspect that the authoritahs will come to regret turning him loose in an inmate population which will likely get a strong dose of moral truth from their interactions with him.

I also have a healthy respect for the Fully Informed Jury Association and their work. They've done their damnedest to reclaim American notions of liberty and justice at the dispositive level of "convict or acquit."

But this whole thing makes me skeptical of the efficacy of that approach. It's sort of like the biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah. If not one honest person out of 12 people can be found -- if 12 Americans will unanimously vote to convict a citizen of "wiretapping" for taping "public officials" in the conduct of their "public duties" -- I must conclude that the whole idea of "America" is dead as a doornail.

Fuck this noise. Queue fire, brimstone and pillars of salt.