Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1871-09-14

Taking up this subject whore we
left it last week, we complain not on
ly of the manifest incompetency of
Jurors, as often found IN the Jury.
box, but of their frequent disagree
mcnts in the iury-room These disa-
grecmonts are rapidly increasing
evil in the present system of trial.
Indeed, so frequent have they.bccomc,
that one is lead 10 suspect they are
t5s;erel, often, from corrupt motives
An interested Juror can venture
much How is he to hc punished for
doing nothing Justice has been
,hwar;eI time after time, by heal
strong Juror who had reason for
lisarrecinr of which the other eleven
were totally ignorant and with which
he would be very SLOW TO acquaint
them. Bat even supposing our ju
ries to be always constituted with
out any OF these interested parties,
still the least that can be said is, that
when counsel are afraid Of losing q
case the force OF their argument is
designed to bewilder the jury,-to
chang thc Jury is their not inappro-
pirate phrase for it. Agricultural
gentlemen are piled with illustrations
drawn from the farm. A horse is
dragged ID, for example, to illustrate
some point Of law bearing on con-
tracts. The pulse of the jury is in
genlously felt in this way till the
most suspectible member is found
He is tiion Familiarity addressed by
name, referred to in the klndest man
ner possible, and in numerous ways
'soit-soaped' i'll hopes that he may
prove to be the very instrument that
will slip the rope around the neck of
WIG .I"is' No", icinoNc our present.
forced system of unamimity, and the
incentive to this specious pleading
will 60 with it, or, at least, it will be
apparent that winning a single juror
will not defeat the ends of justice.
1t will be seen already that we are
aiming at something not short of
majority verdicts. Why should it
be necessary that all agree? 1t has
.ong been ielt by many, that forced
unam;mity is an evil. The philoso-
pher Locke, in the proposed form of
government, which he drew for the
Carolinas in 1865, made the provis-
ion F.: at shall not be necessary that
the jury shall all agree, but tho yer.
dict slal! be according to the consent
Of the majority In 1859, Chief JUS
tlce Campbell, Of England, lntrodu-
ced bill in Parliament, which pro-
posed the majority principle, IN all
civil cases In Scotland, II we mis-
take not, the jury consists Of fifteen
members and renders its verdict in
accordance with the consent of the
the majority. There is long. stand
ing belief that the majority verde.
would hasten justice and, at the same
time, prevent corruption and much
legal CANNON. To effect this, re
form must be made III the manner of
constituting our juries Nothing is
more certain than that just so long
as the regular panel can be objected
off without reason why, 50 long
will the professional juror have an
occupation and so long will lie avoid
forming an opinion. Why, IN cases
of murder, robbery &C., should a man
with his eyes and ears open, who has
read the newspaper accounts of the
case, DC set aside for the block head
who is too stupid to read the news.
and can therefore say, even truthtully,
that he has not heard the facts in the
case and has no opinion OF course.
When we come to be indicted for
murder, we will risk the man who
reads the news and has formed an
opinion, far rather than lie who reads
none and has no opinion. The prac-
tice, III some ms tances, amounts to
making intelligence disqualification
to juror, and filing the box with a
standard Of judgment below medioc-
rity. If the business OF the Court is
SO heavy as to demand 1t, why not
draft forty or fifty, or even more, fill
the box with any odd number from
seven to fifteen, ignore all tales men
and object, first, to those who have
least general knowledge, and, second
ly, to those who may be personally in
terested in the results of the cause
called for trial. 1t is easier to dis
cover the evil than to propose rem
cdy; but enough has already been
said to prove that something should
be done.
However, we may so much farthe r,
and declare that, in view of the mag
nificent folly Of jury trials, it would
be better,-if they can not be reform
el,-to abolish them entirely.