On the record
Since the jury alone can give the judgment, or sentence, we infer that they must try the case; because otherwise they would be incompetent, and would have no moral right, to give judgment.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “Since the jury alone can give the judgment, or sentence, we infer that they must try the case; because otherwise they…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner emphasizes the necessity of jury involvement in trials to ensure their competence and moral authority.
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They do not attempt to deceive us, or mislead us, or reconcile us to their doings, by any such pretences, impostures, or insults as these.
On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.
They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.
They do not tell us that all liberty and order would be destroyed, that society itself would go to pieces, and man go back to barbarism, if it were not for the care, and supervision, and protection, they lavish upon us.