In short, they would judge, from any and every means they might have of judging; and if they had any reasonable doubt that he knew his act to be criminal in itself, they would be bound to acquit him.
Spooner insists that juries must acquit if there is reasonable doubt about the accused's awareness of the criminal nature of their act.
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More from Lysander Spooner
Yet the codes of the most celebrated kings are very small, and were little more than compilations of immemorial customs.
And he can rightfully be held to no greater knowledge of the law than this.
When two men meet one upon the highway, or in the wilderness, have they a right to dispose of his life, liberty, or property at their pleasure, simply because they are the more numerous party?
Therefore all their laws, as they call them,--that is, all the laws of their own making,--have no color of authority or obligation.