Jury nullification is a term used to describe a situation when jurors decide to acquit a person of criminal charges even though the person on trial could technically be convicted based on the evidence. Jury nullification is a concrete, practical way that jurors can assert their values and stop people from going to jail or prison, and it is one approach that we can use, alongside many others, to disrupt the carceral state.

It is not unusual for people who are critical of the legal system, especially prison abolitionists, to actively try to avoid jury service and the discomfort of interacting with the criminal legal system. However, we urge people who care about abolition or decarceration to participate as jurors because serving as a juror and deciding to say “not guilty” provides a unique and concrete opportunity to put your values into practice.

As a juror, you have the power to single handedly say “not guilty” and get someone out of the grasp of the legal system. This toolkit offers suggestions of potential actions you can take as a juror to help keep people out of prisons and the carceral system now. One of those actions, and the main focus of this toolkit, is saying “not guilty” as a juror, also known as jury nullification. Jury nullification is a term used to describe a situation when jurors decide to acquit a person of criminal charges—say “not guilty”—even though the person on trial could technically be convicted under existing law, based on the “evidence” presented at trial.

Participating as a juror, and engaging in jury nullification, can prevent people from going to jail or prison. Drawing lessons and inspiration from a long lineage of social movements in support of Black liberation and to abolish the prison industrial complex, we offer this toolkit—and the tool of jury nullification—as one small way among many that individual people can show up for the freedom struggles of people targeted by the legal system.