Time: Sun Oct 19 19:23:04 1997
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Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 19:00:13 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Collection of Thoughts, Page 9, 10/18/97 (fwd)

<snip>
>
>From: "Harold Thomas" <harold@halcyon.com>
>Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 13:49:38 +0000
>Subject: Collection of Thoughts, Page 9, 10/18/97
>
>Justices GRAY and SHIRAS, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
>(Dissenting opinion, Sparf and Hansen v. U.S., 156 U.S. 51,
>176 (1894)): "But, as the experience of history shows, it
>cannot be assumed that judges will always be just and
>impartial, and free from the inclination, to which even the
>most upright and learned magistrates have been known to yield
>from the most patriotic motives, and with the most honest
>intent to promote symmetry and accuracy in the law of
>amplifying their own jurisdiction and powers at the expense of
>those entrusted by the Constitution to other bodies. And there
>is surely no reason why the chief security of the liberty of
>the citizen, the judgment of his peers, should be held less
>sacred in a republic than in a monarchy."
>
>ALAN SCHEFLIN and JON VAN DYKE ("Jury Nullification: the
>Contours of a Controversy," Law and Contemporary Problems, 43,
>No.4, 71 1980): ): "If juries were restricted to finding
>facts, cases with no disputed factual issues would be withheld
>from the jury. But such cases are presented to the jury. By
>its general verdict of innocence, the jury may free a person
>without its verdict being subject to challenge. The judge
>cannot ask jurors to explain their verdict, nor may the judge
>punish the jurors for it. Although judges now generally tell
>jurors they must obey the judge's instructions on the law, the
>jurors may not be compelled to do so. If the jury convicts,
>however, the defendant is entitled to a broad range of
>procedural protections to ensure that the jury was fair and
>honest.
>
>"When a jury acquits a defendant even though he or she clearly
>appears to be guilty, the acquittal conveys significant
>information about community attitudes and provides a guideline
>for future prosecutorial discretion in the enforcement of the
>laws. Because of the high acquittal rate in prohibition cases
>during the 1920s and early 1930s, prohibition laws could not
>be enforced. The repeal of these laws is traceable to the
>refusal of juries to convict those accused of alcohol traffic.
>
>
>
>STEVEN E. BARKAN ("Jury Nullification in Political Trials,"
>Social Problems, 31, No. 1, 38, October 1983): "Jury
>acquittals in the colonial, abolitionist, and post-bellum eras
>of the United States helped advance insurgent aims and hamper
>government efforts at social control. Wide spread jury
>acquittals or hung juries during the Vietnam War might have
>had the same effect. But the refusal of judges in trials of
>anti war protesters to inform juries of their power to
>disregard the law helped ensure convictions, which in turn
>frustrated anti war goals and protected the government from
>the many repercussions that acquittals or hung juries would
>have brought."
>
>http://www.drtavel.com/fijalink.htm
>
<snip>

===========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell, Sui Juris      : Counselor at Law, federal witness 01
B.A.: Political Science, UCLA;   M.S.: Public Administration, U.C.Irvine 02
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_____________________________________: Law is authority in written words 09
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice.  We shall 10
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. 11
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