On the record
They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner points out the jury's power to grant pardons, showcasing their influence on justice.
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More from Lysander Spooner
On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.
They acknowledge it to be our unquestioned right and duty to kill them, if we can; that they expect nothing else, than that we will kill them, if we can; and that we are only fools and cowards, if we do not kill them, by any and every…
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.
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.