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2013 November 15
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"We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world;
and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding
twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read." |
"They call it the Halls of Justice because
the only place you get justice is in the halls." |
"Show me the prison,
Show me the jail,
Show me the prisoner
whose life has gone stale.
And I'll show you a young man
with so many reasons why
And there, but for fortune,
go you or I." |
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2013 November 14
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"If it weren't for lawyers, we wouldn't need them." |
"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do;
but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do." |
"Lawyers [are] operators of the toll bridge
across which anyone in search of justice has to pass." |
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2013 November 13
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"There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated
under the shield of law and in the name of justice." |
"Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing,
there is some ordinance under which you can be booked." |
"Today the grand jury is the total captive of the prosecutor
who, if he is candid, will concede that he can indict anybody,
at any time, for almost anything, before any grand jury." |
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2013 November 12
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"Of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press;
of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases;
of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms...
If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment,
it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny." |
"The right of juries to decide questions of law was widely accepted in the colonies, especially in criminal cases. Prior to 1850, the judge and jury were viewed as partners in many jurisdictions. The jury could decide questions of both law and fact, and the judge helped guide the decision-making process by comments on the witnesses and the evidence. Legal theory and political philosophy emphasized the importance of the Jury in divining natural law, which was thought to be a better source for decision than the “authority of black letter maxim.” Since natural law was accessible to lay people, it was held to be the duty of each juror to determine for himself whether a particular rule of law embodied the principles of the higher natural law. Indeed, it was argued that the United States Constitution embodied a codification of natural rights so that “the reliance by the jury on a higher law was usually viewed as a constitutional judgment.” " |
"Jury nullification is a doctrine based on the concept that “jurors have the inherent right to set aside the instructions of the judge and to reach a verdict of acquittal based upon their own consciences, and the defendant has the right to be so instructed.” Though jury nullification may seem like a shocking proposal today, it is by no means a new idea. In fact, jury nullification was first espoused nearly three and one half centuries ago." |
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2013 November 11
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"[T]he jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both law and fact." |
"The failure to instruct jurors on their power to nullify also raises constitutional concerns. The right to a jury actually exists as part of a constitutional framework designed to protect defendants from potential government abuse. The Sixth Amendment states, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a ... public trial by an impartial jury. ...” The Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial is “fundamental to the American scheme of justice,’ acting as a safeguard against the government. This constitutional safeguard is achieved through the “participation of the community in determinations of guilt and by the application of the common sense of laymen who, as jurors, consider the case.” " |
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