of various witnesses thereupon ignorant, partial, prejudiced,
or plainly false and forsworn.
In regard to the Fact, the jury is limited to the evidence adduced in
court. What any special juror knows from any other source is not
relevant there to procure conviction. But in regard to the Law there
is no such restriction; for if the jury know the law better than these
three classes of witnesses for it in court, then the jury are to
follow their better knowledge. At any rate, the jury are to make up
their minds on this question of Law, and for themselves determine what
the special Law is.
Every man is to be held innocent until proved guilty--until the
special Deed charged is proved against him, and until that special
deed is proved a Crime. The jury is not to take the government
attorney's opinion of the Fact, nor the prisoner's counsel's opinion
of the Fact, nor yet the judge's opinion thereon; but to form their
own opinion, from the evidence offered to make up their own judgment
as to the Fact. So likewise they are not to take the government
attorney's opinion of the Law, or the prisoner's counsel's opinion of
the Law, nor yet the judge's opinion thereon; but from all the
evidence offered, not [Transcriber's Note: for 'not' read 'or'; see
Errata] otherwise known to them, to make up their own judgment as to
the Law. After they have done so--if they decide the Law in favor of
the accused, the process stops there. The man goes free; for it does
not appear that his deed is unlawful. But if the jury find the Law
against the deed, they then proceed to their third function.
III. The jury is to decide the QUESTION OF THE APPLICATION OF THE LAW
TO THE FACT. Here is the question: "Ought the men who have done this
deed against the form of Law to be punished thereby?" The government
attorney and the judge are of the opinion that the law should be thus
applied to this case, but they cannot lay their finger on him until
the jury, specially sworn "well and truly to try and true deliverance
make," have unanimously come to that opinion, and say, "Take him and
apply the law to him."
The Deed may be clear and the Statute clear, while the Application
thereof to the man who did the deed does not follow, and ought not to
follow. For
1. It is not designed that the full rigor of every statute shall be
applied to each deed done against the letter thereof. The statute is a
great sleeping Lion, not to be roused up when everybody passes
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