Charles Skelton: “the sad part of this whole debate is the fact that it attacks the confidence and credibility of an institution that has…”

“the sad part of this whole debate is the fact that it attacks the confidence and credibility of an institution that has served Great Britain and the United States and our various States now for some 700 years, and that is the jury trial. Sure, juries are composed of humans, and you are going to find some cases that many people will disagree with the outcome of. Jessie James' brother, Frank James, for instance, was acquitted, even though there was hard evidence that he held up those banks. Many people disagreed with the outcome of the O.J. Simpson case. But overall, Mr. Speaker, the jury trial is a very basic institution. What this does is this takes it out of balance. I had the opportunity through the years to participate in the American justice system by trying cases, by defending people accused in civil cases, by representing others. So I think we should do our very best maybe to look at this again in light of the fact that we have a very sound institution called the jury system.”