On Friday, a jury convicted actor Wesley Snipes (a.k.a. Blade the Daywalking Vampire Slayer–I confess I have seen all three of those movies!) on failure to file tax returns (for three of the six counts charged), and acquitted him of tax evasion and conspiracy. It appears that the jury found that Snipes acted in good faith, a defense to the intent requirement. I have not followed the trial closely, but it looks suspiciously like jury nullification to me, even though the jury convicted the non-celebrity co-defendants, the promoter and the accountant. Unfortunately, this verdict only bolsters the crazy tax-protester movement for which I have little sympathy. Furthermore, with a jury verdict like this, I do not imagine the prosecutor has many options for an appeal given the deferential standard of review applied to a jury verdict.

I will be interested to see what the judge does at sentencing; with the guidelines now being advisory, the judge could depart upward. I would think Snipes would be making arrangements to pay back taxes to show some remorse to the judge in an attempt to avoid jail time, but that is just my speculation. Judge William Terrell Hodges is a Nixon appointee who assumed senior status in 1999.

Here’s a link with a bunch of the documents in the case. The “Wesley Snipes’[s] Anti-Tax Manifesto” is a particularly interesting sample of the pro se genre of legal filings.