The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-09-16
TBE "JURY-sYsrEK.'

T TBE "JURY-sYsrEl1."s 49, Il. ! .s:.... ..
+ But to come down upon the solid
fact, letus confess that the eordinary Jury
is utterly incompetent to perform the
duties of its Office. Men.wh are ta-
ken from the different walks of life.
men whose minds run in the narrow
channels ofspecialized industries, are
brought into courtroom under cir
cumstances utterly strange to them,
without habits of mental application,
without practice in sitting evidence;
easily imposed upon BY the plausi-
6ilities Of counsel, easily acted upon
through their sympathies, easily i'm
pressible by eloquence, and are ex-
pected the first time, and every time,
to render justice. The thing is alb
surd on the face of it; and so notor-
ious now is the uncertainty of q jury
trial, that men regard a verdict very
much as they do the drawing Of q
lottery. A verdict is a matter Of jury
and not ofjustice at all. So we'll un-
derstood is the fact, on the part Of
corporations, that, before a jury, they
4
stand no chance in any case against
an individual, that many of them have
ceased to expect justice from q jury,
and, SO, are constantly compromising
suits in which they know their op-
ponents have no case. The average
juror makes common cause with any
individual against a corporation, as
the corporation has found to its cost.
AS men average, there is one man
in twelve, at least, of. exceptional
mind and characteristics. There was
a devil among the. twelve Apostles,
and in nearly every jury there Is a
"crooked stick" He may be with
out common honesty; he may be
without common sense. He may be-
a man who has a genius for differing
with everybody on every possible
subject. One man in twelve, at least,
has some kind Of eccentricity, and, as
he has had no especial education to-
help him, his opinion on any subject
is without the slightest value. Now,
this twelfth man is the man on whom
hangs the fate of all who trust them
selves to aju1y trial. He can hinder
justice, and he usually does it. The
good sense Of eleven men may have
decided given case in a given way,
but the bad dssense, or the bad dispo-
sition, Of the twelfth man, is enough
to thwart their will, and make all
the labor bestowed upon the case of
no avail. We decide all other ques-
tions by a majority vote but this.
Here alone we require unanimity,
and no chance whatever is afforded
to realize the results of prepondera-
ting opinion. If a jury trial could
be decided by majority, even if it
should be five-sixths, or eleven
twelths, justice would have a better
chance. As it is, we have always to
count in the chance of getting the
crooked stick, the dishonest man, the
corruptible man, aud to admit his
power to spoil any verdict that elev-
en- men may freely decide upon.
The law does its best to make every
juror incompetent, by insisting that
he shall be SO little intelligent in cur
rent affairs as to have no opinion
concerning them, as they may relate
to cases in hand.
We should very much prefer to
leave case of ours with three men
trained in law, or to one man accus-
toned to comparing and measuring
evidence, than to twelve men selected
by lot from the realm of acknowledg-
ed inexperience and incompetency.
After one has picked out the three
best men on jury, he has better
jury in the three than in the nine
which are left. A sum is not increas-
ed by piling ciphers upon it. The
simple truth is that the jury.system is
outlived and ought to be outlawed.
1t does not help the cause of law and
justice, and ought to be kicked out Of
the wav.. 1t is oppressive to the jur:
or, it is anomalous in our system Of
government, it makes the uncertain
ty of the law still more uncertain, it
is expensive, and it is utterly unnec-
essary. There is nothing sacred
about it. :: To be tried by a mans
peers is not half so good a thing as to
be tried by a mans intellectual and
moral superiors. .-SScribner' Magazine.
A SCENE FROM LIFE.