Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-03-04
IFRoA OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENCE


| OF all devices to ensure that thing shall not
be done, commend me TO the jury system as it
| exists with us. AT best it is relic of bar
barous ages. Probably it once might have been
protection against wrong, just as a shield OF
bulls hide would turn off an arrow-shot or
| spear-thrust But such a shield would avail
| nothing against shot from any modern rifle,
or even pistol. With us, at least, the system is
a sham, a fraud and burden. 1t is a sham
and fraud, because as now manipulated, no
| twelve men can be placed in the jury box with
any reasonable assurance that all of
them are capable and honest. 1t has
| come to pass that on both sides,
in every important case, the effort is to pack a
jury; that is, for each party TO get into the box
at least one rogue or fool on its own side One
juror of the right stamp for the purpose is as
| good as the whole, for since the verdict must be
unanimous, one rogue or fool counterbaances
eleven honest and capable men.
How great a burden our system is, is shown
| by the fact that while we have not far from
100000 legal voters, our fullest jury lists en-
brace but about $4,000 names. One way or an
other, five voters out of six are exempt from ju-
ry duty. OF one very large class of exemptions
have nothing TO say. This comprises the men,
bers of our organized state militia. These men
hold themselves in readiness to act as cOnserva-
tors of public peace. They comprise no small
| part of the best element of the younger part of
our population. They would be our very best
| jurors; but their service as militia may be set
down as fair Offset against liability for jury
| duty.
Otherlegal exemptions are absurd. The" profess
siOns," so called, are practically free. Clergy
men, doctors and teachers, are specially exempt
Alt public officers, national state, or municipal
are exempt. Lawyers are by legal fiction held
| to be public servants and are so exempt. The
| great class of working men are practically ex
empt, in one way or another. Thus, jury duty
| falls almost wholly upon the trading class and
| this, with US, is very miscellaneous one. Two
out of three are Of foreign BIRTH The very best
men Of these ale able, one way or another, to
| get clear of ordinary jury duty. Some get their
| names on the grand jury list, which frees them
| from ordinary duty. In times past, il man
summoned as juror knew any official about
the courts, he had little difficulty in getting sex.
cused" for the term. L am almost ashamed to
cused. But let me say in pallaton, that had
served at every term when summoned, it would
have taken nearly a quarter of my time. But
within year or two, the letter of the law has
come to be quite rigidly enforced. Now, in or
der TO be excused, man must show very good
reasons.
term" of any one of our score of courts
generally means a month, although occasionally
there is shorter one. Saturday usually is not
"court-day," besides which there is an occa-
| sional adjournment on Friday. Twenty days is
therefore fair average for a term. 1t is an odd
| sight for one to appear at the opening OF term
| Usually the panel consists of 1O4 names. These
are called by the clerk. Many will not be pres.
| emf; against them fine of S25 is entered. Those
present come up before the judge. great part
| Of them have excuses" of all kinds. The
judge considers these, and decides upon their
validity. If in the end he gets fifty jurors out
of the 1O4, heis lucky judge All this takes
time. The first day always, and as far as my
own experience goes usually the second, is thus
taken up.
Then the court is supposed to be ready for
business. Not so the parties. Case after case is
| called. Ore side or the other is not ready, and
asks for postponement. The last time was
| summoned it was not until the fifth day that
| jury case was ready. All that time and my
unfortunate fellow jurors in expectancy sat on
bare benches doing nothing, able to distinguish
only now and then a word passing between
court and counsel. 1t was dull work for those
who had not the forethought TO provide them.
| selves with q hnOlr Or n I oil
provided in this respect; but think that many
OF my less provident associates would gladly
have paid the price of whole years subscri-
| ton for single number Of the Spy.
When at last a jury is demanded a member is
not unfrequently called to sit in Judgment upon
matter of which he is quite aware his decision
is really worth nothing. For example, who
never take pill, or give a dose of castor-oil to
my child, except by direction of physician,
was once called upon to decide upon a case of
malpractice alleged against physician. Alter
all the evidence was given, | was no more fit to
give a true verdict than / should have been to
decide upon the true reading of an Assyrian
inscription. Fortunately for me and my fellows,
the judge took the matter out of our hands.
He directed us to render a verdict for the de-
PENDANT upon point of law. Somehow, no
matter what were the real merits of the case
the action had been wrongly brought, or i'm
properly conducted. Of the real merits of the
case imagine the judge knew as little as did
and that, with my best effort, was just nothing at
all. How could l know whether in this case the
physician should have prescribed a stimuant
or a sedativeP Yet this was the very point upon
.plafr had I,na h.,, ~
should have been called 10 pass.
A friend OF NINE, who does not pretend TO
| understand the difference between " high
pressure" and low pressure" steam err"
was once placed upon jury to decide 80 .,'
validity of the patent for o. :. | nn,lae e."
The interests involved ame,% - S
dreds of thousands cc ,r
case lasted for - OF dollars. The
onon,, .,,o 49, FO/3s. The counsel were
~ .do,sxtK the country; among the
80 Ss5 were the best mechanical experts, whose
s,sfmony was wholly contradictory. In the
evidence admitted were scores of books and hun
dreds of drawings, all presented for The one
purpose of proving or dsrroving that a GER
tain mechanical ar angement was or was not the
invention of the plaintiff in the case. What
me that no ordinary jury could fairly pass upon
them. In this case, also, the court really took
the case out of the hands of the jury. l dare
say that the action OF the court was right. But
the part of the jury was mere farce. They
were only the useless fifth wheel of IA coach.
In brief, jurors, as we have them, are useless.
If the editor of the Spy and its New York cor
respondent, both presumably honest men, should
ever happen to have a disagreement, neither
would like to leave ito jury chosen by chance
| We would rather leave it TO some person or per
sons capable of deciding rightly upon the points
whereupon we honestly differed.
If our jury system works badly in mere pri-
vate cases, it works still worse where general feel
| ing comes into the question. Let me give an in
stance illustrative of the point. spent most of
Wednesday, February %, in the common pleas
court room. The matter in hand was to find
twelve men to decide whether or no Abraham
Oakley Hall, our mayor, was or was
not guilty Of certain offences charged
against him by indictment. Several days