----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 7:57
PM
Subject: The citizen quiz brought back a
memory....does the jury have the right to judge the law?
I called into a talk show 6 or 7 years ago to a Supreme
Court Judge from Minnesota and thought you guys would like to see what
he had to say.
Here is the transcript of the show. It speaks volumes.
Host: My special guest in the studio today is Supreme Court Justice Edward
C. Stringer, Minnesota Supreme Court, and Justice Stringer is here and
graciously accepting phone calls, he is running for office, so ah if you in
Minnesota are wondering about the candidate, here he is, answering questions,
those he can about the law. William are you there?
William(W): Yes, Good Morning to both of you.
Justice Stringer(JS): Good Morning
(W): Ah, Justice Stringer, does the jury have the right to judge the
law?
(JS): No, the jury applies the law as given to it by the judge and ah that
is all the jury has to work with...
(W): And when did that change?
(JS): It never has been different.
(W): Can I read a short quote?
(JS): Sure
(W): John Jay the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court said "The
Jury has a right to judge both the law as weel as the fact in controversy."
Samuel Chase, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, he said "The jury has the right to
determine both the law and the facts."
(JS): Well, well uh...
Host: Who determines this, Justice Stringer?
(JS): The ah, ah, ah, historically, ah, to my knowledge ah, and I have been
around for a long time and ah, I have never, ever heard a a ah a ah...that the
jury determines the law, ah...
(W): They can judge the law, the juries historically have, have overruled
the law, for instance in Prohibition, the juries overruled the law ah, and
then the legislature came by and repealed the Amendment.
(JS): Well I can�t talk about any specific case that you may have in hand.
But I will tell you that in the legal system that we have in Minnesota every
legal system that we have throughout the 50 Sates and the Federal System, no
jury is charged with the responsibility for judging the law. They deal with
the facts.
(W) And they don�t have the right to judge the law?
(JS) No sir. Just the case.
(W): And so what you�re telling me is that John Jay is wrong and Samuel
Chase, a signer of the declaration of Independence, was wrong when he said
this.
(JS): Maybe they, maybe they, ah that�s the way they dealt with it back in
the 1800�s, but I can tell you that, that is not the way the system works.
Host: Thanks a lot William (William gets cut off)
I still have the audio tape of this somewhere around here and the written
transcript doesn't do justice to his dancing and backflips, it's sad and funny
at the same time.
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