The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-03-10
EVILS Of TRIAL ARE
DISCUSSED BY
JURY
Able Paper Prepared BY J. J.
Samson Of the College
of Law.

Mr.. j. j. Samson, a senior in the
College of Law, writes the following
paper, "Trial by jury" setting out the
wits Of our jury system.
Trial by jury is very dear to the
American people. 1t has been consid-
cred the palladium of our liberties,
shielding alike from the encroach-
ments of power and from the frenzy
of popular excitement and fury. Com
ing from the people and giving to them
potential voice in the administra-
ton of justice, it has inspired feeling
of confidence and security. We love
to think that we make our own laws
and that we are a governing peo-
PIE. In all the operations of govern
ment, from the least to the greatest,
we are nowhere more forcibly remind
ed that power and sovereignty reside
around the hearthstone, than when
called to serve upon the jury, there to
rass upon the rights, the liberties and
the lives of our fellow men.
Some recent noted criminal trials,
where weeks have been spent in form
ing jury, where intelligent and
broad-minded men have been excluded
merely because as wide awake men
they knew something of what was go
ing on around them and such events
made some Impressions on their
minds. suggest that the jury trial as
often now conducted is made a cum
bersome and Intellectual means of adj
ministering justice. They suggest
that trial by jury is being used as a
means for the protection, rather than
the protection, rather than the pun
ishment of criminals, and that its USE
fulness is being frittered away by de-
cisions and precedents that tend to ex-
clude every intelligent man from the
jury box.
1t goes without saying that every
defendant charged with crime, who is
guilty, prefers to be tried by jury
of ignorant, stupid men, rather than
by an intelligent jury, and as the law
is now administered, he all too often
accomplishes his purpose. This con-
dition Of things was never contem-
Plated by the trainers of our federal
or state constitutions. The only re-
quirement is that the defendant have
speedy trial before an impartial jury.
The impartial jury of the constitution
means a jury of intelligent men, cap
able of weighing and judging of the
evidence in a calm, unbiased manner,
and with intelligent tcapacity and
judgment sufficient to arrive at just
conclusion. It does not mean that on
ly those shall serve on the jury who
from mere imbecility know nothing of
the case and have formed no opinion
whose mind Is a perfect vacuum. 1t
is as much a violation of the intent
and spirit of the constitution to try
a defendant before a jury incapable
of weighing and Judging of the evil
dence properly, as to try him before
jury that had agreed before hearing
the evidence to convict The impartial
jury that the constitution requires is
jury of intelligence. If the intelli-
gent juror is to be disqualified be-
cause he has such an opinion or Inn
preston as that it would require evil
dence to remove it, as is strenuously
insisted upon by various courts, then
indeed is it true saying that the
most important cases, those that in
volved the dearest interests of society
and civilization, are tried before the
lowest order in the social scale, be-
cause by the decisions and precedents,
intelligent Jurors are excluded from
the jury box.
Statutes in all the states and terri
tories, based on the theory that men
are honest and have common sense,
making one uniform rule and rea-
sonable test as to the competency of
jurors, would speed the administration
of justice, decrease taxation by saving
useless expense, secure the trial of
causes before intelligent and impair
tial jurors, and reinstate the jury sys-
tenn in the confidence and affections
of the people.
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