The jury, not being bound, in a criminal case, by the authority of an unjust law, judge the act on its merits, and acquit the defendant thus declaring that he was not bound to submit to the same law which the jury, in the civil suit, had, by their judgment, declared that he was bound to submit to.
Spooner asserts that juries can judge the merits of an act in criminal cases, independent of unjust laws.
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The answer is, that they are as reliable for that purpose as are the majority; they are as much presumed to have associated, and are as likely to have associated, for that object, as are the majority; and they have as much interest in such…
It would also be making them consent to what they regard as the destruction of their own rights.
It would be a solecism and absurdity in government to allow such consequences as these.
And nobody is bound to take the least notice of them, unless it be to trample them under foot, as usurpations.