Jury nullification
Jury nullification goes back to the beginnings of the jury system in England as established by the Magna Carta in 1215. The practice came to the United States during the colonial period. The case thought to be the precedent for jury nullification in the US is that of John Peter Zenger in 1735. He was put on trial for seditious libel. Zenger had criticized the governor in his newspaper, The Weekly Journal. Trying everything he could to insure a guilty verdict, the governor even had Zenger's lawyers disbarred to prevent him from having legal representation. But the jury refused to convict him, going against the judge's orders.