***Return to informing juries of their rights and they’ll fix this problem in a hurry.***
Would you kindly bring me up to date on informing juries of their rights. I’m out of the loop on this.
An 1895 supreme court decision ruled that jurors “need not be told of their rights”. That decision has led to the dumbing down of juries and taken control from them.
Those rights include things like the ability to ignore a judge telling them they must rule in accordance with the law. The ability to call and question witnesses. The ability to decide for themselves what is and isn’t admissable in a court of law.
JOHN ADAMS (1771): It’s not only ....(the juror’s) right, but his duty, in that case, to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgement, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.
JOHN JAY (1794): The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1804): Jurors should acquit even against the judge’s instruction....”if exercising their judgement with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction that the charge of the court is wrong.”
SAMUEL CHASE (1804): The jury has the right to determine both the law and the facts.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1920): The jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both the law and the facts.
U.S. vs. DOUGHERTY (1972) [D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals]: The jury has....”unreviewable and irreversible power...to acquit in disregard of the instructions on the law given by the trial judge.”
“Would you kindly bring me up to date on informing juries of their rights. I’m out of the loop on this.”
Google “FIJA”. That’s the Fully Informed Jury Association.