For example, it is a power to declare imperatively that a man's property, liberty, or life, shall not be taken from him; but it is not a power to declare imperatively that they shall be taken from him.
Spooner emphasizes the protective role of juries in safeguarding individual rights against government overreach.
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They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.
When two men meet one upon the highway, or in the wilderness, have they a right to dispose of his life, liberty, or property at their pleasure, simply because they are the more numerous party?
It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.