The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-05-03
Which Is Bulwark OF Our
: Civil Laws.
JUROR HOLDS DECIDING POWER
And Often Stands Between the
People and Rule OF Ar.
bitrary Court.
UNEDUCATED POSSESS WISDOM

to human government is our jury
system. Does the average layman
fully appreciate it's tremendous irl-
portance and power? Do We fully
realize its dignity, independence and
supreme authority in interpreting
the will of the people, which, after
all, alone is law?
If the French word petit" means
inferior in dignity, Importance and
power, then to call a trial jury
petit is gratuitous derogation.
for, on the contrary, it is great and
grand, the peoples one impregnable
fortress against usurpation and tyr
AMY.
Trial by jury said the great
law-giver Sir William E. Blackstone,
always has been and l trust always
will be the glory of English law"
The most precious and far-reach-
ing right ever wruug from Plantag-
enet by Saxon, from tyrant by free
man, was at Runnymede seven hun
dred years ago, when the liberty
loving Barons forced King John to
write in the Magma Charta: Your
cause shall be tried by the judgment
of your peers"
True, a jury sometimes takes the
bit in it's mouth and runs amuck,
but on the other hand, nothing
could strike deeper at the roots of
liberty than the absolute DONNA
ton of the jury by the court. In
deed, except as a vehicle of tyranny,
what possible purpose could jury
serve if the judge could dictate the
verdict? Would it not defeat the
very object of the system and trans
form the republic into an aristoc-
racy of judges?
The judge may sit higher in our
temples of justice and, in chancery,
he is even clothed with the danger
Gus power of both the legislative
and the judiciary, but in jury trials
little more than a mere moderator.
He is confined strictly to the letter
of the law-"which killeth"-but
jurors are not only supreme judges
of the facts and letter of the law,
but the spirit of the law-'which
giveth life If an innocent man is
caught in the meshes Of technically
or his rights menaced by the literal
interpretations of Dick, Tom and
Harry, they make short shrift of the
eloquent pleas of the bar and learn
ed opinions of the court, thus stand
ing as a flaming sword between JUS
tee and oppression. freeman and ty-
rant.
The juror is guided by what his
conscience and judgment as a repre-
sentative of the sovereignty of the
people tell him is just, right and
merciful. This is the peoples con-
ception of law and they are the
highest authority. So, when his
conscience and judgment clash with
what the bar and court understand
to be the literal construction of the
law, unlike the Judge, II is not his
conscience that must fall before the
dilemma, for, thanks to the funda-
mental spirit of the system, he is
peer and is trying the case on his
own judgment of the facts and the
law.
What a travesty, what a bruntal
reflection upon his honor and intel
ligence it is to assume that any pre-
vious knowledge Of the case renders
him wholly unfit for jury services.
as If from stupidity and prejudice.
he was utterly incapable of differ
entiating between sworn testimony
and common rumor and could not
alter an opinion founded upon ire
sponsible gossip. But. still worse,
when once accepted. to round him
up like suspect. surround him
with all kinds of discomfitures and
subject him to humiliating and
eternal espionage. as II he had been
condemned to the electric chair.
Good Lord! If all this means any
thing II means that the jury is I'M
Trustworthy and unfit for the duties
and responsibilities Of an American
citizen.
I do not mean to disparage nor
dishonor the judiciary. In its CO.
ordinate angle of our triple system
II is great, noble. Incompatible. and
to 1t l reverently uncover in pro-
found respect and admiration.
only want to lift the debased Juror
to his wanted niche In the temple.
With all its faults. never be per-
suaded that our rights and liberties
woull be safer In the hands of one