The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-03
PECULIAR JURY
 LAWS OF BRITAIN Man Must Have Fifteen
 Windows in House SOME AMUSING CASES Man Once Freed by Grand Jury Al though He Confessed Guilt-Jury- man Missing, But Left Vote
 With Companion
SOME AMUSING CASES

London, Oct. Especial )--No man may serve on jury in this country If he lives in d house with less than 15 windows. Nor is anyone eligible for tury duty in England who pays less than s100 or $150 rent a year, according to the country in which he resides. To serve on a special jury, moreover, one must be an esquire" or person of a higher degree than the common, or gar. den juror-namely a banker, merchant or a householder occupying private dwelling place assessed at not less than $500 in town of not fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. or s250 elsewhere. And whereas the special juror is paid s5 per case. the ordinary juror gets shilling or about a quarter of a dollar. The window qualification, by the way, Is a relic of the old days when windows were taxed and the number a man could afford was an indication of his means.
 This strange anomaly in country where justice on the whole is so well ad- ministered, of measuring a mans in- telligence by his rent roll or by his tax receipts is brought to mind by reading of the extraordinary care taken in choosing the jurors for the Becker trial in New York
 The British system of selecting jurors has been condemned by many judges and lawyers as being farcical, and it is not surprising that many truly amazing as well as amusing results of trial by jury are on record in this country. Of these, perhaps the most astonishing is related in the "reminiscences of the late Sergeant Ballantine who tells of a case when a man confessedly guilty of mur- der was set free by q jury. The prisoner, who had a bad record, was committee to take his trial at the London sessions The grand jury threw -out the bill against the man, greatly to the surprise of the judge, Sir William Hardrnan, who returned the document to the jury with the suggestion that probably some mis- take had been made. The foreman in- itiaed the bill and sent it back.
 Sir William imagined that the grand jurymen had reconsidered their previous decision When called upon to plead, the prisoner declared frankly that he was guilty and was, therefore, remanded to come up for sentence later in the day minute or two afterwards, the fore man intimated that his initials on the bill were meant to emphasize the original finding of the grand jury The pris- oner was brought back into court. The grand jury" said Sir William, "beleve you are innocent. You have told us that you are guilty. I have no alterna- tive but to discharge you from custody y
 Perhaps the best story in connection with British juries is told by Lord FL don. Noticing once, during the progress of trial, that one of the jurymen was absent he said, There are only eleven jurymen; where is the twelfth?" Please, my lord said one of the eleven. he has gone away about some business, but he has left his vote with mel
 The intricate laws of copyright in this country bother juries a lot. but never were twelve good men and true more puzzled than the jurors in an important civil action that was tried before the late Justice Jeff. The judge had devoted many hours to a lucid and painstaking summing up of the case and the jury had spent half of another day in con- sultation, when at last they returned into court, to the manifest relief of ev- erybody present. It was only however, to explain that they could not arrive at a decision What is your difficu1ty2" asked the judge impatiently, If you please, your lordship.' asked the fore man, tugging at his forelock. what we wants to know is what all this ere case is about!'