Trial by Jury

"By assuring that the people themselves participate in the judicial process, governing authorities are prevented from unjustly prosecuting individuals. It assumes that the people themselves are the best guardians of their own rights, and that they will release from custody any person improperly charged. It also allows the people to make unjust laws of no effect with their power of jury nullification."

-- Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.

Virtually every jury is instructed by a judge that they must determine the guilt or innocence of a defendant based upon the law as he explains it to them. They are told that their duty is to judge only the facts that are presented to them; that their experience, conscience, opinion of the law itself, defendant's motives, etc. are to have no bearing on their decision. But that is not true. In fact, it goes against the reasons why a trial by jury was included in our Constitution! For example, look at the following quotes which were taken from a list of over 1,500 excerpts from the writings of Thomas Jefferson:

"I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."

-- Thomas Jefferson to T. Paine, 1789

"If the question before [the magistrates] be a question of law only, they decide on it themselves: but if it be of fact, or of fact and law combined, it must be referred to a jury. In the latter case of a combination of law and fact, it is usual for the jurors to decide the fact and to refer the law arising on it to the decision of the judges. But this division of the subject lies with their discretion only. And if the question relate to any point of public liberty, or if it be one of those in which the judges may be suspected of bias, the jury undertake to decide both law and fact. If they be mistaken, a decision against right which is casual only is less dangerous to the state and less afflicting to the loser than one which makes part of a regular and uniform system."

-- Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Va., 1782. Q.XIV

"We all know that permanent judges acquire an esprit de corps; that, being known, they are liable to be tempted by bribery; that they are misled by favor, by relationship, by a spirit of party, by a devotion to the executive or legislative power; that it is better to leave a cause to the decision of cross and pile than to that of a judge biased to one side; and that the opinion of twelve honest jurymen gives still a better hope of right than cross and pile does."

-- Thomas Jefferson to Arnond, 1789

In the U.S. there are five separate hurdles that a prospective federal law must get over before it can truly be considered enforceable: it must be passed by the House and Senate, signed into law by the President, not be determined unconstitutional by the Courts, and juries must be willing to bring in a verdict against those who do not adher to it. State laws must generally pass similar muster, but local laws may only need to be passed and signed by a single body instead of the House, Senate and President in the federal case.

But regardless of whether the law is a local, state or federal one, our jury system is still the final hurdle; it is the last legal defense against any potential tyranny by the political elite. As a juror, you have the power (some would say the right, and in my opinion even the obligation) to ignore the law if you determine that such is necessary to come to a fair and just verdict.

One of the major factors that contributed to the repeal of Prohibition was that juries routinely refused to convict those charged with only liquor law violations. Jury nullification of law is the citizens' ultimate weapon to protect themselves from a government which no longer represents the will of the people.

So, the next time you serve on a jury, remember that you are a member of that important group that is providing the last of the checks and balances that were designed to preserve and protect the personal rights and liberties of all citizens of our country.

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