Matt & Kay

On Wednesday, May 4,  Emberlea and I returned to Tampa to distribute FIJA brochures and educate people on jury nullification.

As always we started at the Federal Courthouse at 801 N. Florida Avenue Tampa Florida.  We said good morning to the Federal Marshal and passed out brochures for approximately thirty minutes.  We then headed to the Hillsborough County Courthouse at 800 E. Twiggs Street, Tampa, Florida.

At the county courthouse we met up with Matt Leffler & Kay Newton who I had agreed to meet there.  I gave Matt & Kay brochures and explained to them what to do.  As always we took an early lunch and then headed into town to distribute brochures amongst the people that were on lunch.

After an hour we returned to the county courthouse to distribute brochures to the people there.

Today we distributed approximately 800 brochures in and around Tampa, another great day for FIJA activism and outreach.
A big thank you to Emberlea, Matt and Kay.

Florida Libertarian Party Convention 4-28-11 to 5-1-11

On Friday, March 29th, Emberlea and I headed to West Palm Beach, Florida to the Libertarian Party of Florida convention.  At the convention approximately one hundred and twenty Libertarians showed up to hear people speak and to elect party leaders.

Emberlea and I handed out the NEW! Fresh Air for Justice brochure, and we explained to some of the members about jury nullification.

We had a great time educating people and we passed out about 120 brochures.

Emberlea Educating The People Of Tampa, About Jury Nullification

On Thursday, April 28th Emberlea and I returned to the courthouses in Tampa to distribute Fully Informed Jury Information, to educate the people on their right to judge the facts of a case and also to judge the law.
The sky was clear and it was hot and humid.

As always we started at the Federal courthouse at 801 N. Florida Avenue Tampa, Florida. The Federal courthouse is always quiet, there are not many people going in or out, and those that are, are mainly attorneys. After sticking around for thirty minutes we moved on to the Hillsborough County Courthouse at 800 E. Twiggs Street, Tampa, Florida. Normally there is a big audience at the county courthouse, but todays numbers seemed to be down. As always we took an early lunch, then headed into town to Lykes Gaslike Park to catch people on their lunch break. After an hour of handing out brochures at the park, we headed back to the courthouse, passing out brochures to every passerby.

Back at the county courthouse we continued to pass out brochures and have conversations with people about jury nullification.

Today we passed out approximately 640 brochures.

Today, James Cox and I went to the Federal Courthouse, the County Courthouse and Lykes Gaslight Park in Tampa to distribute FIJA brochures. The first place we started at was the Federal Courthouse, but there was no  activity at the time. Next we walked over to the County courthouse and talked and handed out brochures to many people. Some people asked questions and some didn’t. Some didn’t want any brochures, but most did. At lunch time, we headed over to Lykes Gaslight Park, where many people were sitting on benches and walking through the beautiful downtown park. We had some interesting comments and conversations with various individuals. James had a discussion with a couple about just what FIJA and its outreach and activism does. After that we headed back to the county courthouse.  After an interesting discussion with a gentleman about not having any rights and the uselessness of voting, we continued to distribute brochures. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I thoroughly enjoyed distributing important information that all people have the need to know. Today we distributed approximately 800 brochures and later James & I made the following video.

The police asked the group to go back behind the palm trees at the county courthouse.  Cox told the officer “We will comply, we are peaceful people just asserting our First Amendment right”.

Cox gave a brochure to a lady who started reading it to another lady that was sat with her.

The brochures were accepted by the majority of people, and the majority that rejected them said that they already had one from a previous time.

All in all a great day for activism. The group distributed over 400 brochures to the people.

Cox passed out jury rights brochures to the students and explained the importance for serving on a jury (see below video).

After Cox spoke to the Young Americans for Liberty, he crashed the Young Republican’s meeting, where he passed out approximately fifty FIJA brochures.

Last night James Cox spoke to the Libertarian’s of Orlando.  Cox explained to the group about his activism with the Fully Informed Jury Association in Florida.  Cox said “Education is where it is at.” “We have to educate as many people as possible about jury nullification, its our only peaceful way to turn the country around.”  Cox encouraged the group to serve on a jury if summoned, and that if they know of anyone that gets a jury summons, to encourage them to serve also.

“Don’t check your conscience at the door.” Cox said. “If there is one part of this message that I want you to take away from here is that, you have a right to judge the facts of the case and the law itself.” “Don’t let the judge fool you.” “You are the most powerful person in that courtroom.”  Cox said “The highest and best function of the jury is to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical prosecutions and bad laws unfairly imposed by government.” Cox said.   Cox asked gave each member a copy of the new FIJA brochure Brochure Fresh Air for Justice .PDF  then said to the group “I hope that I have encouraged  you to get involved.”

FIJA’s Florida state coordinator James Cox spoke to a crowd of fifty plus people at the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida last night.

Cox in his speech told the RLC about how in the past ten years he has seen the United States turn more each day into the United Kingdom. In his speech Cox said “The United States is the last bastion of freedom, and I am not going to sit and watch this country turn into Europe!” He then went on to say “We have a chance to turn things around, and one of the ways is through Jury Nullification.” “The message that I am going to deliver here tonight, you the people in this room have to run with it.” Cox said. “You have to get involved, you have to educate others, like I am going to now educate you!” Cox said.
Cox asked the audience “Do you know how many times the word Jury is mentioned in The Constitution and The Bill of Rights?” The room was silent, people looked at each other for the answer. “The word jury is mentioned four times.” Cox said. “There is a reason for this, because the founders of this country knew that we would be here in this very position that we are today.” Cox said. He added “We have nothing but corruption throughout government, even the very legal system that is supposed to deliver justice is corrupt.” Cox then said “I’ll tell you how corrupt it is.” “We are caging peaceful people for victimless crimes, crimes that are not crimes at all, because there is no injured party and we are doing this at our own expense.”
“It costs around $30,000 a year to hold someone in prison and you are paying for it.” Cox said. “Not only that, if the defendant is the main breadwinner of the family, then the family will probably go on welfare.” Cox said. “We have to stop this, we are bankrupting ourselves.” Cox said.

Cox then talked about jury duty and jury nullification. He said “When you get a jury summons, please go and serve.” He then added “Once you are on the jury, judge the facts of the case and the law itself.” “Please do not check your conscience at the door” he said. Then Cox said “If you think its a bad law or the law is being misapplied you may deliver a not guilty verdict.”

Cox told the group “When you serve on a jury, you are the most powerful person in that courtroom, because one person standing their ground can hang a jury.” He then said “Why is hanging the jury important?” Cox then answered his own question by saying “Because acquittals and hung juries are politically embarrassing to legislators judges, prosecutors and bureaucrats.” He then went on to say “It shows them that, that law is not supported by the community.”

The brand new FIJA Brochure was passed to the group Fresh Air for Justice .PDF

The message was well received with a round of applause from the group.

Today FIJA activists Cory Chenard, Mark Schmidter and James Cox attended the Seminole County Courthouse near Sanford, Florida.

This merry band of peaceful men distributed educational material on Jury Rights to people entering and exiting the courthouse.  The brochures were excepted by about 90% of the people, and the people said thank you for the information.

This morning the group had one encounter with a female police officer who came out from the courthouse to find out what the groups was doing. Schmidter and Cox explained to the officer, that they were educating citizens about their rights when they serve on a jury. They explained that jury nullification is the right to refuse to enforce bad laws and bad prosecutions. Cox went on to say “When someone serves on a jury, they should judge the facts of the case and the law itself.” The female officer asked if she could get a brochure, which Schmidter handed to her, and with that she went back inside the courthouse.

Today the group distributed approximately 300 brochures.

Approximately twenty-three people attended the meeting, where Cox explained to the group about why it is important to sit on a jury.

Cox explained that it is the right of the people, that when they sit on a jury, they can vote with their conscience. They can deliver a not guilty verdict based on not just on the facts of the case, but the law itself.  He went on and said “When one person stands their ground and finds the defendant not guilty, they have just hung the  jury.”  ”When enough people do this, because they find that the law is unjust, or it’s being unfairly misapplied, it sends a message that, that particular law is not supported by the community.”

The message was accepted within the group and Cox handed out the Jury Protection for Second Amendment brochure to them.