Jury nullification activist Keith Wood has been exonerated by the Michigan Supreme Court after being charged and convicted of jury tampering for handing out informational pamphlets outside of a Mecosta County court house.
“We won my case at the Michigan Supreme Court, in a 5-2 opinion! Thank you Jesus and Praise God!” Wood announced in a Facebook post declaring his historic victory.
The Michigan Supreme Court ultimately determined “that the individuals here who were merely summoned for jury duty and had not yet participated in a case were not jurors under MCL 750.120a(1).” Wood’s hellish legal ordeal is finally over after five long years.
Wood received bipartisan support throughout his fight, with groups such as the Fully Informed Jury Association, the Cato Institute, and the ACLU of Michigan filing amicus briefs on Wood’s behalf. Their arguments ultimately were determined to be valid, and Wood’s reputation has been cleared as a result.
“Mr. Wood’s speech was protected by the First Amendment, and the jury tampering statute as interpreted and applied in this case is unconstitutional. Accordingly, his conviction should be reversed,” the Michigan Supreme Court determined in their decision.
Liberty Conservative News has reported about the infuriating details of the prosecutorial overreach inflicted upon Wood and his family by government villains:
“Keith Wood was convicted of misdemeanor jury tampering in 2015 for handing out jury nullification fliers outside of a Mecosta County courthouse. A case was underway pertaining to Andy Yoder, an Amish man accused of illegally filling in a wetland by the state of Michigan. Wood hoped to reach these individuals entering the courthouse with a message in favor of jury nullification, a well-established right of jurors to judge the morality of the law that an individual is being accused by the state of breaking during a particular case.
“He wasn’t out there with a megaphone screaming, ‘Free Mr. Yoder!’ The pamphlet talks about voting your conscience, things like that,” Wood’s attorney David Kallman said. “And it’s not like people are walking up to the courthouse with a neon sign saying, ‘I’m a juror.’”
He was even not in the courthouse while handing out these pamphlets, but was charged with obstruction of justice and jury tampering nonetheless with his bond set to $150,000. He had to charge $15,000 to his credit card just to make bail and be able to spend Thanksgiving with his family. During the case, the defense was forced by the court to omit a crucial fact to the jury that no jurors given pamphlets by Wood were under oath when he did so.
“It’s not enough to hand out a general informational brochure… I understand they don’t like it, but you know what, in our country again we can still speak freely. At least I think we can, and people can have differences of opinion,” Kallman said in defense of his client during the initial trial.
In a bizarre and telling instance of judicial corruption, after Kallman said “speak freely” the prosecutor said, “Judge!” and the judge said to Kallman, in what very well may have been a veiled threat, to “be careful.”
“I guess you better not be on public sidewalks, and better not be handing out information to anybody, because you could get prosecuted,” Kallman said after the ruling.
The conspiracy to destroy the basic rights of the people goes much further than just one rogue judge. It is the entire system that desires to suppress the truth of jury nullification. A District Judge upheld the case, and then the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the conviction a separate time.”
Wood’s victory in the Michigan Supreme Court shows that achieving justice through the system is not impossible. Still, drastic reforms are needed to ensure that no man suffers an ordeal like Wood went through ever again.
