Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [81-100] of 103 Jury quotesJury QuotesJury Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes For more than six hundred years -- that is, since the 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 the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust, oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating or resisting the execution of such laws.~ Lysander Spooner If a juror feels that the statute involved in any criminal offence is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant's natural god-given unalienable or constitutional rights, then it is his duty to affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime at all, for no one is bound to obey an unjust law.~ Harlan F. Stone The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.~ Harlan F. Stone The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.~ Harlan F. Stone In “A jury’s duty” (11/8) by Mike Romano, John Junker asserts that juries have the right to nullify laws in principle but should not use this right in practice. Would he then be willing to give up the rights of free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom to organize a labor union, abolition of slavery in the North, and the repeal of alcohol prohibition—all of which were given to us by juries who put the principle of nullification into practice? Without jury nullification no systematic veto exists for the people and tyranny ensues.~ Patricia Michl Sumner ...and in all cases of libels, the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court, as in other cases.~ Texas Constitution Jurors have found, again and again, and at critical moments, according to what is their sense of the rational and just. If their sense of justice has gone one way, and the case another, they have found “against the evidence,” ... the English common law rests upon a bargain between the Law and the people: The jury box is where the people come into the court: The judge watches them and the people watch back. A jury is the place where the bargain is struck. The jury attends in judgment, not only upon the accused, but also upon the justice and the humanity of the Law.~ E. P. Thompson We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read.~ Mark Twain The pages of history shine instances of the jury’s exercise of its prerogative to disregard uncontradicted evidence and instructions of the judge.~ U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Jury lawlessness is the greatest corrective of law in its actual administration. The will of the state at large imposed on a reluctant community, the will of a majority imposed on a vigorous and determined minority, find the same obstacle in the local jury that formerly confronted kings and ministers.~ U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia [T]he jury, as the conscience of the community, must be permitted to look at more than logic.~ U.S. Court of Appeals First Circuit The pages of history shine on instances of the jury's exercise of it's prerogative to disregard instructions of the judge.~ U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia We recognize, as appellants urge, the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by the judge, and contrary to the evidence. This is a power that must exist as long as we adhere to the general verdict in criminal cases, for the courts cannot search the minds of the jurors to find the basis upon which they judge. If the jury feels that the law under which the defendant is accused, is unjust, or that exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic of passion, the jury has the power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that decision.~ U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Maryland From now onwards the jury enters on a new phase of its history, and for the next three centuries it will exercise its power of veto on the use of the criminal law against political offenders who have succeeded in obtaining popular sympathy.~ U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit [The] purpose of a jury is to . . . make available the common sense judgment of the community as a hedge against the overzealous or mistaken prosecutor and in preference to the professional or perhaps over conditioned or biased response of a judge.~ U.S. Supreme Court [T]he jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both law and fact.~ U.S. Supreme Court It may not be amiss, here, Gentleman, to remind you of the good old rule, that on questions of fact, it is the province of the jury, on questions of law, it is the province of the court to decide. But it must be observed that by the same law, which recognizes this reasonable distribution of jurisdiction, you have nevertheless a right to take upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy. ... For, as on the one hand, it is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts; it is, on the other hand, presumable, that the court are the best judges of law. But still both objects are lawfully, within your power of decision.~ U.S. Supreme Court Since it was first recognized in [the] Magna Carta, trial by jury has been a prized shield against oppression ....~ U.S. Supreme Court The pages of history shine on instances of the jury's exercise of its prerogative to disregard instructions of the judge...~ U.S. vs. Dougherty Nullification is but one legitimate result in an appropriate constitutional process safeguarded by judges and the judicial system. When juries refuse to convict on the basis of what they think are unjust laws, they are performing their duty as jurors.~ Judge Jack B. Weinstein Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print