Today in 1791 the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution
called the 'Bill of Rights' ratified when Virginia gave its approval.
Since the Magna Carta,there has been no clearer principle of English or
American constitutional law, than that it is not only the right and duty of
juries to judge what are the facts but what is the law.
The right and duty of jurors is plain they are a palladium of liberty. The
jury is our barrier against the tyranny and oppression of the government.
If a government can dictate to a jury only make it necessary for them to
convict on a partial exhibition of the evidence rightfully it can even
require them to convict on any evidence whatever that it pleases to offer a
jury.
The trial by jury is by the people. It is not a trial by the government.
The object of a trial by the people, in preference to a trial by the
government, is to guard against every species of oppression of a government.
Sinclair
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