Trial judge

“ Fair trials are too important a part of our free society to let prosecuting judges be trial judges of the charges they prefer. [9] It is true that contempt committed in a trial courtroom can under some circumstances be punished summarily by the trial judge. ”

“ The capital defendant's guilt or innocence is determined in the traditional manner, either by a trial judge or a jury, in the first stage of a bifurcated trial.
If trial is by jury, the trial judge is required to charge lesser included offenses when they are supported by any view of the evidence. ”

“ That the evidence is sufficient in law I am reluctantly compelled to decide. Whether the court which deals with points of this description will confirm my judgment or overrule it I cannot say. In the meantime, you must take it from me that you are legally justified in convicting the prisoner. [Pg 163] Whether you are really justified on the facts is, of course, a very different question.’
Impression among many that judge is going for acquittal. Jury still in doubt.
‘This is one of those cases which make a judge congratulate himself on the existence of trial by jury. ”

“ It was, on the contrary, delivered to the Jury, as the opinion of the Court, upon an objection urged in point of law, in the most earnest manner by the counsel for the prisoners, and which, if well-founded, must have gone to the destruction of the credit of the accomplices [303] who had given evidence. There can be no part of the duty of the Judge who presides at a criminal trial more sacred than that of expounding the law to a Jury, in reference to such an objection; and it is necessary, therefore, that the opinion of the Court should be given in the most unequivocal terms. ”

“ Foreman.
Just like a father
I wish to be.
(Kissing her.)
Judge (approaching her) .
Or, if you'd rather
Recline on me!
(She jumps on to Bench, sits down by the Judge, and falls sobbing on his breast.)
Counsel.
Oh! fetch some water
From far Cologne!
All.
For this sad slaughter
Atone! atone!
Jury (shaking fists at Defendant) .
Monster, monster, dread our fury,
There's the Judge, and we're the Jury!
Song—Defendant.
Oh, gentlemen, listen, I pray,
⁠Though I own that my heart has been ranging,
Of nature the laws I obey,
⁠For nature is constantly changing. ”

“ He truly becomes the judge of his own cause. The defendant charged with criminal contempt is thus denied what I had always thought to be an indispensable element of due process of law-an objective, scrupulously impartial tribunal to determine whether he is guilty or innocent of the charges filed against him. In the words of this Court: 'A fair trial in a fair tribunal is a basic requirement of due process. Fairness of course requires an absence of actual bias in the trial of cases. But our system of law has always endeavored to prevent even the probability of unfairness. ”

“ No person who is incapable of understanding the nature of the proceedings against him or of consulting with counsel and preparing his defence can be placed on trial at all, or, if already on trial, can continue to be tried, and if a defendant "appears to the court to be insane," the judge may appoint a commission to examine him and report as to his present condition. ”

“ It has also been said, that the right of the judge to instruct the jury upon the weight of testimony has been ruled as the established doctrine of this court. If this be so, it is a revelation which the friends of jury trial, in its full integrity and independence, will grieve to learn, and will be disposed to regard as a demolition by this court of that sacred ark of civil liberty, for which, by the greatest services it may render, it can hardly ever be able to atone. ”

“ Judge Sprague, in the district court of the United States for the district of Massachusetts, said: 'The constitution secures a trial by jury, without defining what that trial is. We are left to the common law to learn what it is that is secured. Now, the trial by jury was, when the constitution was adopted, and for generations before that time had been, here and in England, a trial of an issue of fact by twelve men, under the direction and superintendence of the court. ”

“ After denying a motion for a new trial, the judge proceeded upon the conviction thus obtained to pass sentence upon your petitioner, imposing upon her a fine of $100 and the costs of the prosecution.
Your petitioner respectfully submits that, in these proceedings, she has been denied the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all persons accused of crime, the right of trial by jury, and the right to have the assistance of counsel for their defense. It is a mockery to call her trial a trial by jury ”

“ Discovery by the judge during the trial that 'one or more members of a jury might be biased against the Government or the defendant' has been held to warrant discharge of the jury and direction of a new trial. ”

“ Those who have had former convictions set aside must, like all others who have been convicted, be sentenced according to law, and a trial judge will normally conduct a full inquiry into the background, disposition, and prospects for rehabilitation of each defendant in order to set the appropriate sentence. ”

“ When your case is called for trial the first thing will be to select the twelve men who will be the jury in your case. I am not going to give the manner of selection at this time. This will be fully explained later. I wish now to impress upon you the fact that the Constitution expressly guards your rights by providing that you shall be entitled to have your case tried, not before a judge, but by a jury composed of men from the ordinary walks of life, laborers, merchants, farmers, people of all classes; men just like your fathers are. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The judge is appointed that he may please the central power; the people are only to satisfy such moral convictions as they have. There is often a conflict between the statute and the custom, a conflict of laws; and still more between the judge and the jury—a conflict in respect to the application of the law.
4. Then comes the critical period of the Trial by Jury. For the deputed judge seeks to enlarge his jurisdiction, to enforce his law, often against the customs and the consciences of the People, the jury, who only seek to enlarge Justice. ”

“ It encroaches upon the jurisdiction of the State tribunals.
1st. It takes away the trial by jury.
Nothing can be clearer than that our ancestors attached a high value to the right of trial by jury. But there is a wide difference between an English admiralty judge and one appointed under the Constitution of the United States. The reasons for entertaining a jealousy against the former do not apply to the latter. ”

“ The defendant has the option to have his case considered by the first jury, and where the judge, acting without defendant's consent, aborts the trial, the defendant has been deprived of his 'valued right to have his trial completed by a particular tribunal'. ”

“ The effect of the rules may be thus summarized: (1) In the chancery division no trial by jury unless ordered by the judge. (2) Generally the judge may order trial without a jury of any cause or issue, which before the Judicature Act might have been so tried without consent of parties, or which involves prolonged investigation of documents or accounts, or scientific or local investigation. (3) Either party has a right to a jury in actions of slander, libel, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, seduction or breach of promise of marriage, upon notice without order ”

“ The Bench faces the audience, and extends along the back of the Court. The Judge's desk c., with canopy overhead, Jury box r., Counsel's seats l.
Barristers, Attorneys, Jurymen and Public discovered.
Chorus.
Hark, the hour of ten is sounding:
Hearts with anxious fears are bounding,
Hall of justice crowds surrounding,
Breathing hope and fear—
For to-day in this arena,
Summoned by a stern subpoena,
Edwin, sued by Angelina,
Shortly will appear. ”

“ It is only in criminal cases that a jury forms a part of the judicial administration. As with us, it consists of twelve men. Forty-eight are summoned for the term; and the panel for each trial is selected by lot, the names being drawn by a boy, who hands the paper to the presiding judge. In capital cases, challenges are allowed, without the demand of cause. ”

“ You don’t know what a trial at the Old Bailey or Quarter Sessions is. I don’t mean at the Old Bailey p. 237before a real Common Law judge, but a Chancery judge. I once heard a counsel, who was prosecuting a man for passing bad money, interrupt a recorder in his summing up, and ask him to tell the jury there was evidence of seven bad florins having been found in the prisoner’s boot. ”

“ And any tribunal, whether judge or jury, that attempts to try these issues, has no more moral right to be swerved from the line of justice, by the will of a legislature, than by the will of any other body of men whatever. And this oath does not require or permit a jury to be so swerved.
In criminal cases, Blackstone says the oath of the jury in England is:
"Well and truly to try, and true deliverance make, between our sovereign lord, the king, and the prisoner whom they have in charge, and a true verdict to give according to the evidence."—4 Blackstone, 355. ”

“ If a jury have not the right to judge between the government and those who disobey its laws, and resist its oppressions, the government is absolute, and the people, legally speaking are slaves. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In short, if the jury have no right to judge of the justice of a law of the government, they plainly can do nothing to protect the people against the oppressions of the government; for there are no oppressions which the government may not authorize by law. ”

“ Where was the judge he'd never seen? Where was the high court he had never reached? ”

“ The flagrant disregard in the courtroom of elementary standards of proper conduct should not and cannot be tolerated. We believe trial judges confronted with disruptive, contumacious, stubbornly defiant defendants must be given sufficient discretion to meet the circumstances of each case. ”

“ I must either protest against this mode of trial, or by tacitly consenting to it, suffer my honour to be sacrificed. No innocence can secure the accused if the Judges and Jurors be chosen by the accuser; and if I were tacitly to submit to a tribunal of this description, I should be instrumental in my own dishonour.
On these grounds I protest against this species of trial. I demand a trial in a court where the Jurors are taken impartially from amongst the people, and where the proceedings are open and fair. Such a trial I court, and to no other will I willingly submit. ”

“ At the conclusion of the complainant's case, if it appear reasonably certain that the magistrate will "hold" the prisoner for the action of a superior court, the lawyer will then "waive further examination," or, in other words, put in no defence, preferring the certainty of having to face a jury trial to affording in prosecution an opportunity to discover exactly what defence will be put in and to secure evidence in advance of the trial to rebut it. ”

“ A grand jury, generally composed of twelve or more men selected from ordinary citizens, is brought together every term of court. They sit in a room by themselves and hear evidence as to the commission of offenses. They have no power to find a man guilty or not guilty. Their power and their duty is to decide whether the evidence brought before them is sufficient to justify putting the accused man on trial for the offense. They hear the witnesses for the State or government. The defendant is not brought before them personally, nor is he represented in any way. ”

“ The jury alone are to determine whether that testimony proves that the deed constitutes the crime, and that there is a law denouncing death against it; and the jury are to remember that the judge and the attorney who are the creatures of the Government, and often paid to serve its passions, may be, and often have been, quite as partial, quite as unjust, as the prisoner's counsel. ”

“ It may seem to the reader that this scrutiny of talesmen is not strictly preparation for the trial, but, in fact, it is fully as important as getting ready the facts themselves; for a poor jury, either from ignorance or prejudice, will acquit on the same facts which will lead a sound jury to convict. A famous prosecutor used to say, "Get your jury—the case will take care of itself." ”

“ This principle of the free administration of justice connects itself necessarily with the trial by jury, because a jury could not rightfully give judgment against any man, in either a civil or criminal case, if they had any reason to suppose he had been unable to procure his witnesses. ”

“ PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevates the trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble attitude of a dirigible arbitrament. ”