Year: 1879

An able Attack on the Jury system


]. II. Hopkins writes in The Albany


Law Journal: Why should not the major


ity control in law as in politicts-in jurie.


as in appellate courts? Too often some


fool or knave will find place on the jury


who, through the intellectual opacity o.


from pecuniary considerations, will bs


faithful until DEATH and prevent yer


dict Trial by jury has become such


lottery that it has given rise to this max
i'm: IF you have strong case, try it be


fore a Judge or referee; if you have 8


weak case, try it before jury" Might


not incompetency be avoided and justice


more surely obtained by committing to the


judges the decisions of questions Of fact as


well as questions of law?


This ould necessitate an increase in


the number OF judges, but to this there
could be no little objection. The amount


of money actually expended every year for
jurors and the amount lost by those who


are forced to neglect their business in
order to act as jurors, if it were computed,
would be found sufficient to pay seven
judges at every court. 1t will cost more
10 buy judge than a juror? The judge
is dependent upon the people; he is their
servant, and the dignity of that service,
the honor of the office, the responsibility
of the position, and the fear of detection
and disgrace, all tend to render him in
vulnerable to bribery and to place him
above suspicion IT, however. as is some
times the case, q man of low character is
raised TO the bench and is induced to sell
himslf, he at least sells himself dearly. On
the other hand, juror can often be bought
for few dollars, and the purchase of a
juror defeats justice as completely as the
purchase of judge.


The jury system, as it now exists, is bene-
fetal to only two classes-professionai
jurors and jury lawyers. Men of the first
class owe to it theil subsistence; and when
placed upon the jury maintain the cause
OF thoses who employ them with a tenacity
which ensures victory. Men of the first
class exist by reason of the system.
They pilot weak case into the
harbor of success on waves of talk. They
are guiltless of sound reasoning; but they
and draw forth whatsoever music they
please. Their existence proves the defects
of the jury system. Before the higher
courts they are pOwerless, for the higher
courts are swayed by logic rather than
language, while the jury regards logic
with the same feelings which the devil
is supposed to entertain concerning holy
water ''-


The jury Is the clown of the law. 1t is
inventing new and ingenious
tricks tor the evasion of duty. 1t is the
patron of the joke called temporary in
sanity" and the author of numberless
other iests of like character. 1t is a
source of amusement to all
except its victims. There is nothing un.
certain about it but its uncertainty. II
has been sneercd at and satirized and
and carricatured. Judges
have snubbed it, and legal wits, like
Curran, have riddled it with sarcasm in
open court. Yet mistaken conservatism
suffers it to continue its laundering way



Yet such ia the reverence for antiquity
that any change or improvement in the
jury system is, to say the least, improbable
for many years to come. 1t has gained
too great a reputation as 'the palladium
of liberty" to be hastily abandoned. But
the reverence due to long established
ought not to degenerate into
blind worship. HOwever- Venerable q
system may be, those defects which mar
it should be eradicated, and If it is wholly
bad It should be abolished. Judge it
fairly then. Grown it for what it has
been; cruelty 1t for what it has been.