Year: 1875

so dependent upon precedent, withal so dear to all English speaking people as the system of trial by jury. It is one of the most popular of all our many peculiar institutions and deservedIy so. It exists only III those countries where the principles of the common law prevail. This system gives every man accused of any felony the rare privilege Of having the question Of his guilt or innocence de- cided not by some functiOnary Of the gov ernment having probably no knowledge of the habits or customs of the communi- ty where the alleged wrong is claimed to have been committed, no natural sympa- thy with the accused or, possibly worse, in being directly hostile to him, but, so anX- ious is the common law for the fairest,

 most honorable and most unexceptiona-

 ble dealing, that it gives the accused the

 benefit of having his case decided by what

 may be called a public meeting of his own

 fellow-citizens, persons of the immediate

 vicinity, neighbors and equals, men who

 not only know the sentiment of the com

 munity where the accused has lived, but

 are in fact part of that community hay

 ing the same stake in society as himself in tue general matter of personal liberty, as also in the general need of personal se- curity. The accused is not only allowed such a tribunal to try his case, but to a great extent he is allowed to select it. He may object to any one who has any bias nr nrpiudipa which rraVaDt him from fairly deciding upon the issue and, in the matter of very serious charges, he is allowed a body to be composed of only twelve men, to object to and set aside, ab solutely, without giving any reason what ever, as many as ten persons who have

 been found to be perfectly qualified under the law to try his case. This is an extra ordinary protection granted to any body of people. It is true it entails great ex- pense, but 1t is privilege for which peo- pie are and ought to be willing to pay very

 liberally. But there is no need of being unnecessarily extravagant about it. There is no need of pushing the theory of the system to that absurd and senseless de- gree that the cost of it becomes one of the most serious burdens of county govern ment. We have just had term of court

 here with five jury trials on indictments for murder, and the expense of getting those sixty jurors has probably been ten

 and few more such terms would go far towards bankrupting the county. Who

 is to blame? Nobody but the dear people themselves. They have adopted the usual

 law saying that nobody Is qualified to sit on jury who has formed or expressed an

 unqualified opinion or belief of the guilt or innocence of the accused. A murder is committed somewhere. Everybody talks

 about 1t. Generally no one sees the deed actually committed, at most only one or two, or may be three or four persons in the whole country know anything positively about the matter on which they could re- ally and honestly form any decided opin- ion. But the story goes from mouth 10 mouth, each person merely repeating the general report he has heard. Hundreds of persons on these rumors alone, wheth- CT heard or read, naturally say, what a horrid murder, the man ought to be hung 2 and then think no more about it. Yet not one of those persons can sit upon the jury. They have expressed an unqualified opin- ion. They were not careful enough at the

 time to bring themselves within the law by saying cautiously, if these facts told to me be really true, or If these facts turn out on the trial as now statedlto me, then etc, !, although as a matter of fact that may have been the actual state Of their minds at the time. But no matter how honest and intelligent they may seem to the judge, no matter how much they may de-

 clare under oath that they know nothing

 of the case except from rumor, that the

 opinion they had formed and expressed was one on which they would not act even

 in the most ordinary business affair with out farther investigations; that they have no bias or prejudice whatever against the prisoner, that they could homes tly set on the jury and render a verdict on the case according to the law and the evidence giy- en, no matter; jury box full after jury box full of such men must be sent away with their three dollars apiece in their pockets, because they have expressed an unquaif- fled opinion. No discretion is allowed to the judge, but another venire must issue. the sheriff must SCOUT the country again at more expense, to bring in another lot of men ninp-tenthS 0f whom ,nuct for Iil>o