Juror

“ The prevalent idea, that a juror may, at the mere dictation of a legislature or a judge, and without the concurrence of his own conscience or understanding, declare a man "guilty," and thus in effect license the government to punish him ”

“ It cannot be that each juror should go to the jury room with a blind determination that the verdict shall represent his opinion of the case at that moment, or that he should close his ears to the arguments of men who are equally [p502] honest and intelligent as himself. ”

“ The jury offers a fertile field for the study of human nature, and lawyers and prosecutors learn to look regularly for certain characters. Of these may be mentioned the too officious juror who asks hundreds of incompetent and irrelevant questions to which the lawyers are naturally afraid to object, and whose inquisitiveness has to be curbed by the court itself. ”

“ But if a person called as a juror states that he has formed or expressed an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant, the court or the parties shall thereupon proceed to examine such juror on oath as to the ground of such opinion ”

“ When the jury had retired the talesman in question made a long speech in favor of murder in the first degree, and refused to vote for any other crime. Such performances are rare. Of course, it not infrequently occurs that a juror by his manner of asking questions shows plainly his state of mind. The feelings of a prosecutor can be easily imagined when a juror turns in disgust from one of the People's witnesses, or those of a defendant's counsel when another, [Pg 219] looking towards the prisoner, grinds his teeth as the evidence goes in and ejaculates, "Brute!" ”

“ In Illinois, the Criminal Code having declared that 'juries in all cases shall be judges of the law and the fact,' the jury, at a trial for murder, after being out for some time, came into court, and, through their foreman, suggested that a juror maintained that he was competent to judge of the correctness of the instructions of the judge as the juror's opinion of the law might dictate. ”

“ When the affidavit of a juror, as to the misconduct of himself or the other members of the jury, is made the basis of a motion for a new trial, the court must choose between redressing the injury of the private litigant and inflicting the public injury which would result if jurors were permitted to testify as to what had happened in the jury room. ”

“ The great man knows that the jurors are aware of the importance of the occasion and that their eyes will follow his every movement. As he walks up to the counsel table and deposits his derby it may well become a gage of battle.
The clerk at the side of the judge's desk begins turning a large hollow wooden wheel; within it are cards on each of which is written the name of a juror who has been served by the sheriff to attend on the panel for the trial term of the court. The number summoned naturally is larger than the twelve needed for any one case. ”

“ The government has presented the result of elaborate research to show that throughout the long period from the development of the jury system to modern times, the English common law permitted a servant of the King to serve as a juror in crown cases, provided he had no actual bias. ”

“ If the previous examination of a juror on his voir dire, or the statements of counsel, or any facts brought to the attention of the court had indicated that the juror might, or possibly would, be influenced in giving a verdict by his political surroundings, we would not say that the court could not properly, in its discretion, if it had regarded the circumstances as exceptional, have permitted the inquiry whether the juror's political affiliations or party predilections would bias his judgment as a juror. ”

“ In order that the juries in the United States may be legal—that is, in accordance with the principles of the common law—it is necessary that every adult male member of the state should have his name in the jury box, or be eligible as a juror. ”

“ This lawyer now selects a jury in thirty minutes.
Of course, some examination into the general qualifications of jurors and their possible bias in the case is imperative, and frequently the interposition of a peremptory challenge is not only justifiable, but absolutely necessary. A talesman will sometimes betray by an inflection of his voice a sentiment or prejudice which his words deny, or suggest to the vigilant counsel for the defendant the juror's susceptibility to the insidious flattery of the prosecutor in making him a part of the "organization of the court." ”

“ It gives the defendant a reasonable opportunity to ascertain the qualifications of proposed jurors, and to protect himself against any supposed prejudices in the mind of any particular individual called as a juror. Whether better or no than any other method, it is certainly a fair and reasonable way of securing an impartial jury, was provided for by the laws of the state, and that is all that due process in this respect requires. ”

“ The first grave gentleman shakes the box, puts in his hand, and takes out a card, from which he reads the number—then the other grave gentleman turns to that number in the book, and pronounces the name of the juror so numbered, whose name and address are then taken down as one of the forty-eight; and this process is repeated forty-eight times.
Now it is painful to harbour any suspicions of such grave-looking elderly gentlemen: but you know juries are packed; that is an absolute truth; and somebody must be the villain. ”

“ The spectacle of an equal number of intellectual-looking gentlemen, all using good English and all wearing clean linen, reaching diametrically opposite conclusions on precisely the same facts, is calculated to fill the well-intentioned juror with distrust. ”

“ Affidavits were read, showing that upon the removal of the sick juror from the room in which he and his fellow jurors were dining together the other jurors separated, some running to and from the sick man's room, and others going in other directions and alone. In opposition were read the affidavits of the jurors and of the court officers, to the effect that the jurors were always in charge of the officers, that none of them were ever alone, and that no communication was had with them by any person in reference to the case. ”

“ This model panel, which contained but twenty Catholics, who, by their position on it, were likely to be called upon before a jury was sworn, contained nevertheless eleven Englishmen or Scotchmen, and one Frenchman; and, though there were four thousand qualified persons from whom to select, it contained thirty jurors either challenged by the prisoner or set aside by the Crown on recent State trials.
There are critics, I make no doubt, who will consider these inquiries into the religion of jurors petty and sectarian; for is not a juror sworn to do his duty, whatever may be his creed? ”

“ In cases of this kind, when justice is on one side and the court on the other, it seems to me a conscientious man must either refuse to serve as a juror, or else return a verdict at variance with the facts and what courts declare to be his official business as juror ”

“ In some jurisdictions the mode pursued in the challenging of jurors is for the accused and the government to make their peremptory challenges as each juror, previously ascertained to be qualified, and not subject to be challenged for cause, is presented for challenge or acceptance. ”

“ In the face of this ruling no defence could be made by the accused, although he may have exercised at all times his best judgment in the selection of qualified persons, unless he could prove, what in most cases would be impossible, that in a county of many thousand inhabitants there was not a colored person qualified to serve as a juror. ”

“ He wants to do well as a juryman and believes, quite naturally, that an improper verdict will be visited by the judicial wrath and a just one be acknowledged by a look of benignant commendation. If he thought the judge did not care he would take little interest in the business himself, and the apprehension of the court's approval or disapproval is an ever-present factor in keeping him doing conscientious work,—quite as important in its results as his own lightly murmured oath as a juror. ”

“ Dunscomb, to talk of a case before a juror—an indictable offence—but one may make a case of a party’s general character, of his means, his miserly qualities, or his aristocracy; and it will be hard to get hold of the talker for any of them qualities. Aristocracy, of late years, is a capital argument, and will suit almost 134any state of facts, or any action you can bring. Only persuade the jury that the plaintiff or defendant fancies himself better than they are, and the verdict is certain. ”

“ A—I don't think so; no, sir.
Q—Now, Mr. Smith, if you were a juryman, in the jury box, could you go into the box and try the case wholly on the law and the evidence, and render a fair verdict to both sides?
A—I think so.
Court—Competent juror.
Mr. J. G. McKenzie—Ask 'Squire Smith, Col. Darrow.
Talesman—I have been on the regular panel in less than two years.
Mr. Darrow—You have been on the regular panel in less than two years?
Talesman—Yes, sir.
Mr. Darrow—I suppose this entitles him to be excused?
Court—No, sir; it entitles you to challenge him for cause. ”

“ We told you, in reference to the Laurada trial, that it was necessary for all the twelve jurymen to agree before a verdict could be secured.
When a trial is finished and the case is given to the jury, the jurymen in the charge of the sheriff are locked up in the jury-room and kept there until they arrive at a decision or the judge dismisses them.
When the jurors arrive in their own room, a ballot is taken, and if the vote is not unanimous they begin a regular discussion of the case. ”

“ As it was an essential principle of the jury trial from the earliest times, that the jurors should be summoned from the hundred where the cause of action arose, the court, in order to procure their attendance, issued in the first instance a writ called a venire facias, commanding the sheriff or other officer to whom it was directed, to have twelve good and lawful men for the neighborhood in court upon a day therein specified, to try the issue joined between the parties. ”

“ There are connotations about the word challenge which are essentially dramatic. It implies a battle, a duel, a tournament.
It is difficult to ascertain exactly what principles govern the successful examination and selection of a jury. In Massachusetts and in certain important cases in New York, the whole panel of jurors summoned for the term of court have been investigated by detectives in order that the lawyer might have information about who was to be rejected or accepted as a juror to decide the case. ”

“ The jurors were sworn in,—a special jury,—and long was the time taken, and many the threats made by the Chief Justice, before twelve gentlemen would consent to go into the box. Crowds were round the doors of the court, of which every individual man would have paid largely for standing-room to hear the trial; but when they were wanted for use, men would not come forward to accept a seat, with all that honour which belongs to a special juryman. ”

“ It may be regarded as a gratuitous public school ever open, in which every juror learns to exercise his rights, enters into daily communication with the most learned and enlightened members of the upper classes, and becomes practically acquainted with the laws of his country, which are brought within the reach of his capacity by the efforts of the bar, the advice of the judge, and even by the passions of the parties. ”

“ Since the detection and exposition of that infamous list of jurors, out of which a jury used to be packed for the Crown whenever it was prosecutor, some sort of reformation has taken place in the manner of appointing a jury, so as to leave a better chance of having disinterested men on the jury. ”

“ The twelve jurors are locked up in their box, there to fast until abstinence shall have so clarified their intellects that the whole jarring panel can discern the truth, and concur in a unanimous decision. One point is certain, that truth is one and is immutable--until the jurors all agree, they cannot all be right. ”

“ If the panel be exhausted, the jurors set aside peremptorily in the first instance are recalled, and unless some special and legal objection be established against each of them they must be sworn on the jury. Your Law Officers set aside three Protestants and fifteen Catholics; and these omissions, with the prisoner's successful objections and challenges, left the list in such a condition that, unless some of the jurors remaining on the panel were placed on the jury, the Court would have to fall back on the identical men already outraged by being set aside for their religion or their opinions. ”

“ We are informed, on the authority of one of the jurors, that several times they stood eleven to one in defendant’s favor, and once all agreed on a verdict for defendant, when a juror unfortunately remarked that his son had wagered a large sum on a verdict for the defendant; this statement split the jury at once, and from thence on they remained three to nine, until they were discharged. The case was never brought to trial again, the plaintiff wholly abandoning it. It is well known that after plaintiff had abandoned his case, his leading counsel, Hon. ”

“ Had the counsel been allowed to follow up his advantage by an address to the jury, he would, I doubt not, spite of their prejudices against the prisoners, have obtained an acquittal; but as it was, after a neutral sort of charge from the judge, by no means the ablest that then adorned the bench, the jurors, having deliberated for something more than half an hour, returned into court with a verdict of "guilty" against both prisoners, accompanying it, however, with a strong recommendation to mercy!
"Mercy!" said the judge. "What for? On what ground?" ”