"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain --- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist." Lysander Spooner

For more than six hundred years--that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215--there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws.

Unless such be the right and duty of jurors, it is plain that, instead of juries being a "palladium of liberty"--a barrier against the tyranny and oppression of the government--they are really mere tools in its hands, for carrying into execution any injustice and oppression it may desire to have executed.

But for their right to judge of the law, and the justice of the law, juries would be no protection to an accused person, even as to matters of fact; for, if the government can dictate to a jury any law whatever, in a criminal case, it can certainly dictate to them the laws of evidence. That is, it can dictate what evidence is admissible, and what inadmissible, and also what force or weight is to be given to the evidence admitted. And if the government can thus dictate to a jury the laws of evidence, it can not only make it necessary for them to convict on a partial exhibition of the evidence rightfully pertaining to the case, but it can even require them to convict on any evidence whatever that it pleases to offer them.

THE RIGHT OF JURIES TO JUDGE OF THE JUSTICE OF LAWS

THE TRIAL BY JURY, AS DEFINED BY MAGNA CARTA

SECTION 1. The History of Magna Carta

SECTION 2. The Language of Magna Carta

ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF JURORS

SECTION 1. Weakness of the Regal Authority

SECTION 2. The Ancient Common Law Juries were mere Courts of Conscience

SECTION 3. The Oaths of Jurors

SECTION 4. The Right of Jurors to fix the Sentence

SECTION 5. The Oaths of Judges

SECTION 6. The Coronation Oath

THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF JURIES IN CIVIL SUITS

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

JURIES OF THE PRESENT DAY ILLEGAL

ILLEGAL JUDGES

THE FREE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

THE CRIMINAL INTENT

MORAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR JURORS

AUTHORITY OF MAGNA CARTA

LIMITATIONS IMPOSED UPON THE MAJORITY BY THE TRIAL BY JURY

APPENDIX--TAXATION