California IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Bill Would Let Jurors Vote Consciences

Backers of an initiative that would give juries the right to consider whether a law is moral have won approval to gather signatures in a bid to place the measure on the November ballot. Proponents of the proposed constitutional amendment have until Aug. 13 to collect 595,485 signatures from registered voters. The initiative would allow jurors to vote according to their conscience--regardless of the facts of the case--if they found a law to be unjust or wrongly applied. “This is particularly important in cases where juries don’t know what to do because they found the defendant is guilty but has acted morally,” said Marion McEwen, one of the initiative’s backers. The proposed constitutional amendment brings to 38 the number of initiatives in circulation for the November ballot.