On this day in 1670, William Penn was found not guilty by a very conscientious jury who refused to convict him for illegally preaching the Quaker religion in Gracechurch Street in London.
Though they were unjustly imprisoned by the court for days, with food, water, tobacco, and fire withheld from them, Penn's jurors refused to convict him for his victimless activity of publicly preaching a religion not approved by the state.
When they were fined afterward, they appealed their punishment for exercising their consciences in the jury box. They won their appeal and this laid a solid foundation for our right of jury nullification still today.
