A Milwaukee woman has been jailed for 11 years for killing the man that prosecutors said had sex trafficked her as a teenager.

The sentence, issued on Monday, ends a six-year legal battle for Chrystul Kizer, now 24, who had argued she should be immune from prosecution.

Kizer was charged with reckless homicide for shooting Randall Volar, 34, in 2018 when she was 17. She accepted a plea deal earlier this year to avoid a life sentence.

Volar had been filming his sexual abuse of Kizer for more than a year before he was killed.

Kizer said she met Volar when she was 16, and that the man sexually assaulted her while giving her cash and gifts. She said he also made money by selling her to other men for sex.

  • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Alright kids.

    There’s this wonderful thing called “Jury Nullification”

    That means if 1 juror refuses to convict then there is no conviction.

    It is your privilege, right, and I daresay even duty to use this helpful tool when you deem it necessary. If you’re called for Jury Duty on a case. Let’s say non violent drug case. I don’t believe nonviolent drug offenses should be against the law at all except in the case of something really bad like Fentanyl. So if I was called I would refuse to convict if the defendant was there for let’s say Mary Jane.

    But don’t ever say those words. Don’t allude to it. Don’t discuss it with your fellow jurors. Don’t Google it after you’ve been called. It’s your secret. But it’s a secret everyone should know if you get my meaning.

    Now go forth and make the world a better place.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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      30 days ago

      I just posted this somewhere else but it belongs here…

      It’s a jury’s job to find a defendant guilty or not guilty of a given charge.

      When a jury starts considering whether they feel a charge is fair, they’re pretty much just making up the law. At that point you don’t need a court and a jury you could just have a bunch of people deciding the defendants fate based on the vibe.

      When you say they “don’t want jurors to know”, they simply want jurors who understand their role in finding a defendant guilty or not guilty. Thinking that nullification is a possible outcome is tantamount to a refusal to fulfil the role of a juror.

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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        29 days ago

        Tell that to those abolitionists who were not convicted of harboring fugitive slaves because of jury nullification.

        Sometimes laws aren’t just. And as citizens we have a right to stand up to unjust laws.

          • LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world
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            29 days ago

            Why do we have a jury to decide if a defendant is guilty or not guilty when a judge is trained to do the same thing? Why do we allow a jury at all? I think there’s more to the function of the jury than just guilty/not guilty or else they would be replaced with a different system.

            • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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              29 days ago

              I’m getting weary of repeating myself.

              It is very clearly not the role of a judge to decide whether a defendant is guilty or not guilty. They are not “trained” to do that. That is the role of the jury. Hence the phrase “you have been found guilty by a jury of your peers”.

              You have a jury to balance the power of the judge, such that a judge can not simply dole out “justice”.

              • LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world
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                29 days ago

                Defendants can elect to have a jury trial. If they don’t have a jury trial, who finds them guilty or not guilty? Is it the judge? If it’s the judge, why do we allow jury trials to occur when every trial could be determined by a justice of the peace?

                What is “training” if not education in the laws and legal system? Are judges not educated in law school before becoming lawyers and then justices? Is this irl experience not also considered training?

                • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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                  29 days ago

                  Honestly I’m not really sure what you’re talking about.

                  The role of a judge and the role of a jury is a fundamental characteristic of a court. You seem to be mixing them up?

                  • xcjs@programming.dev
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                    28 days ago

                    “What you say disagrees with my world view, so I’m just going to pretend you’re crazy and your words don’t make sense.”

                    I’ve had this exact tactic used against me - it’s very transparent when used and weakens your position.