The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-27
THE Jury SYSTEM.

Justice Brewer, of the United States
supreme court, in a recent address be-
fore the law school of Yale. took occa-
sion to comment upon the jury system,
remarking that ''as it is now adminis-
tered it is little less than rule of a
semi-barbarous age" The justice made
vigorous comments upon the treatment
of the juror, alleging that he is treated
as criminal; kept from assocfating with
his family and locked up at night; COM
relled to serve practically without pay
and is constrained to compromise his
opinions in many cases to secure his lib
erty
All this is most true. and the fact that
it is common knowledge does not detract
from its Importance. Justice Brewer did
not attack the system, but the abuses of
the system. We suspect that had he
been private citizen instead of a mem
Der Of the highest court of the land, he
would have arraigned the system as wei
as its abuses, for the abuses are neces-
sary corollary to the system.
The evolution of the jury system is an
example of the influence Of environment,
completely changing the original design.
The original jury consisted of the
reighbors and friends who were best
acquainted with the litigants and the
facts in controversy; these deliherated
and brought in a verdict based on tho
facts to which the judge might apply
the law How different is the present
system. A man who knows anything
about the facts in controversy; one who
is intimately acquainted with either or
both litigants; one who is sufficiently II
tehigent to have formed an opinion. is
excluded. So refined and subtle have be-
come the reasons for incompetence and
so uniformly have the courts sustained
objections based upon the imaginations
of counsel, that it is next to impossible
to secure jury composed of men of
average intelligence to try even a civil
case.
So dumb is the ordinary jury that bust
ness men shrink from an ndeterninats
session, locked with twelve men, ma
jority of whom may be too thiek-headed
to weigh evidence or understand the in
structions of the court These facts
were no doubt in the mind of Justice
Brewer. as they are fully known to any
lawyer who has had general practice
The jury is the hope of the man who
has committed a crime, the refuge of de-
PENDANT without a case. and the sanctu-
airy of the knave. the liar and the dead
beat.
If the shyster at the bar can get be-
fore jury with his manufactured evil
dence; If he can get his case into the
hands of twelve ignorant men who have
| not the insight into human nature to de-
tect perjury, nor the mental training to
| marshal, sift and dispose of the mass OF
contradictory evidence, he has as good
| chance to win as the lawyer with the
| law. the equity and the facts on his side
The Jurors, under our law, are liable to
| be men who cannot speak the English
| language, nor understand it -half the time
yet they make the best of jurors-they
know so little about the case. The jury
list may contain liars by nature who
sympathize with everything but justice;
1t may contain men whose experience and
education is SO limited that they are
| guided entirely by their prejudices If
| the juror be Finn, Pole or an italian
who knows nothing of our laws and little
of our language, SO much the better
Can justice be expected from such men?
| No. They may be honest in their conclu-
| sions. but they have not the capacity to
SIT as judges on questions Of fact.
The jury system can not be abolished
| it has become a part of our social fibre,
but it can and must be reformed if the