Editing Jury instructions (section)

=== Jury nullification instructions ===
There is also debate, particularly active in the US, over whether juries that are to judge a criminal case should be informed of the possibility of [[jury nullification]] during jury instructions. One argument states that if juries have the power of jury nullification, then they should be informed of it and that neglecting to do so is an act of intervention. Another argument states that defendants should be judged according to the law, and that jury nullification interferes with this process.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hreno |first=Travis |date=2008 |title=The Rule of Law and Jury Nullification |journal=Commonwealth Law Bulletin |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=297–312 |doi=10.1080/03050710802038353 |issn=0305-0718}}</ref> It is also debated that instructions permitting jury nullification is to be criticized as promoting chaos, as it brings the decision between having a structured set of rules and having less of said rules for a more free set of choices that could also promote the likes of [[anarchy]] and [[tyranny]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dorfman, David N. |title=Fictions, Fault, and Forgiveness: Jury Nullification in a New Context |date=1995-01-01 |publisher=DigitalCommons@Pace |oclc=857357756}}</ref>

Studies have indicated that being informed of jury nullification is likely to affect the judgement of juries when they decide on verdicts. One study that looked into 144 juries showed that they were less harsh on sympathetic defendants and harsher on unsympathetic defendants when they had been briefed on jury nullification.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Horowitz |first=Irwin A. |date=1988 |title=Jury nullification: The impact of judicial instructions, arguments, and challenges on jury decision making |journal=Law and Human Behavior |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=439–453 |doi=10.1007/bf01044627 |issn=1573-661X}}</ref> Another study that looked into 45 juries showed that they were likelier to reach a guilty verdict in drunk driving cases and less likely in euthanasia cases, with no reported difference in likelihood in murder cases, with the inclusion of explicit jury nullification details in jury instructions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Horowitz |first=Irwin A. |date=1985 |title=The effect of jury nullification instruction on verdicts and jury functioning in criminal trials |journal=Law and Human Behavior |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=25–36 |doi=10.1007/bf01044287 |issn=1573-661X}}</ref>