According to the simple idea of our forefathers, guilt or innocence was regarded as a mere matter of fact; and it was thought that no man, who knew the real circumstances of a case, could be at a loss to determine whether the culprit ought to be condemned or acquitted." 1 Millar's Hist.
Lysander Spooner: “According to the simple idea of our forefathers, guilt or innocence was regarded as a mere matter of fact; and it was…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner discusses the straightforward nature of determining guilt or innocence according to historical perspectives.
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The people are no more arrayed against themselves, when a jury puts its veto upon a statute, which the other tribunals have sanctioned, than they are when the same veto is exercised by the representatives, the senate, the executive, or the…
And yet these reasons, which are really no reasons at all, are the only ones, so far as I know, that have ever been offered for this absurd and brutal doctrine.
In nearly or quite all the States of the United States the juries are illegal, for one or the other of the same reasons that make the juries in England illegal.
In this manner all unjust laws are established, and made operative against the rights of the people.