On the record
It is probable that an oath was never administered to a jury in England, either in a civil or criminal case, to try it according to law.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “It is probable that an oath was never administered to a jury in England, either in a civil or criminal case, to try it…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner suggests that juries in England were never bound to judge cases strictly according to the law.
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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 whenever any number of men, calling themselves a government, do anything to another man, or to his property, which they had no right to do as individuals they thereby declare themselves trespassers, robbers, or murderers, according to…
All those who are not forbidden by law may be judges (jurors).
It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.