Laura Kriho, a juror who bacame a national rallying point for the jury rights movement when she was convicted of contempt for arguing against drug laws, had her conviction overturned by an appeals court in April.

Kriho, 35, should receive a new trial because the judge who sentenced her "improperly invaded the sanctity of the jury's right to secrecy," ruled a Colorado appeals court in a 62-page decision.

In 1996, a Denver-area judge had ruled that Kriho obstructed justice because she did not reveal her opposition to Drug Prohibition when she was selected to a jury in a 1994 Colorado drug case.

During deliberations, Kriho told her fellow jurors that "drug cases should be handled by families and not by courts," reported Reuters News Service. The case ended in a mistrial when Kriho refused to vote to convict.

When the judge learned about Kriho's actions, he found her in contempt of court, and ordered her to pay a $1,200 fine.

The incident made Kriho a cause celeb for the jury rights movement and for Libertarians, who rallied around her and argued that the American criminal justice system was threatened if jurors were not allowed to freely state their opinions.

The appeals court agreed on a 2-1 vote, and ruled that if Kriho is tried again for contempt, her opposition to drug laws cannot be considered because it was offered during secret deliberations.

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