How can people be so miserable and ruinous to good strangers?

The following story is taken from this Reddit comment. I have every reason to believe it is a true story. Anyone who has been a juror in a victimless "crime" case will corroborate that the following is almost always true.

Hanging the jury. This is exactly what I did the last time I was on a jury.

I waited until the ho-humming was done when it came to selecting a foreman and I volunteered because of my management background. I was voted in unanimously, we listened to the testimony and then it was time for deliberations. We left as a hung jury with me and one other like-minded person voting not to convict, based on the evidence.

What happened? The defendant had called the sheriff's department over a ruckus at his next door neighbor's house. Come to find out, they arrested his neighbor on a domestic violence charge. They decided to pay the defendant a visit in the process. The guy answered the door and the cops walked in without permission or an invitation. They looked around and saw a rebel flag, a marijuana poster, etc., and decided to do a little searching, again, with no provocation other than the guy had called over a woman getting the shit beat out of her.

Of course, they found some weed, a bong and a few other token items in the house. What they charged him with was possession of narcotics and drug paraphernalia and maintaining a dwelling for the intent of manufacturing and distributing drugs.

What they laid out for evidence was a nice glass water pipe, a half ounce of weed, a kitchen scale which, of all things, was found in the kitchen with the other cooking utensils, and plastic sandwich bags, again, found in the kitchen with the saran wrap, etc. It was a bullshit case from the get-go and the guy's public defender didn't have the wherewithal to even link the fact that the defendant never gave permission for a search, permission to enter the premises or probable cause. The sheriff's deputy that testified was a real smug bastard, too. He said that the probable cause they had for entering without a warrant was because they "smelled something funny". I don't think so.

According to the public defender, the guy had always had a job, had never been in trouble with the law and was by himself at the time he was arrested. In other words, he wasn't bothering anyone with his activities. The county was on a huge power trip and have been ramping up their seizures of property based on the clause "maintaining a dwelling with the intent to manufacture and distribute". This guy wasn't cooking meth, cutting cocaine or even selling weed. He had a half ounce. That was his personal stash.

Yeah, 10 other candy-asses who wanted to get out of there quickly and on with their lives voted to convict him [ed. how horrible can human beings be to one another?], but the two of us said no and refused to budge. Results: hung jury, no conviction, pissed off judge who thought it should have taken us about 15 minutes to deliberate and come up with a guilty verdict and a few people who were late getting home to dinner.

Those selfish assholes were willing to convict the guy because they were forced to be there and inconvenienced in the process. Not while I was on the jury. Like arealreactionary said, I never said one word about jury nullification. I believe in it, but we're not allowed to mention it in court or to our fellow jury members.

P.S.: ten people in that jury openly voted to send a man to a cage, ruining his life. This man didn't do anything wrong and, in fact, just tried to help a woman neighbor to not be beaten up. Why? Because they wanted to get out of there in time for dinner. The state forced them to be there, and they just wanted to get out of there. Wait, what, the fastest way to get out of there is to force a perfect stranger into a cage? Who the fuck cares, right? I just want to get to mah dinner.

Fortunately, this man, this victim of the system, walked away mostly unharmed. He walked only because one man, a voluntaryist, was willing to use his brains and didn't give a shit about the social pressure from the rest of the "jury".

If the very people who supposedly must care for justice, the very people entrusted to deliver justice, can't deliver justice, and in fact are willing to act in a thoroughly venal way, just for a tiny bit of personal gain... someone please tell me again, what is this "justice system" that people speak of?

Voluntaryism for the win.