The Death of Jury Trials: A Fantasy of Politicians and Judges Everywhere

Yesterday the WSJ Law Blog ran a post with the headline, “Jury Trial is an Endangered Species,” with the accompanying text suggesting that jury trials were too expensive and inconvenient to be useful. We frequently post about the importance of a jury in preventing state overreach. This can only take place when a jury is fully informed of its rights and is aware of the penalties involved in the cases they are judging. The importance of a jury having a final say cannot be overstated.

In Lysander Spooner's Trial By Jury he repeatedly makes the point that liberty cannot be protected without an informed jury to reign in prosecutors and judges. Essentially, he states, if the sole function of a jury is to judge manners by the letter of the law, then the jury is useless. Because the state can create any laws and rules it wants, a jury must have the power to determine the validity of the law as well as guilt or innocence.

So why do the judges and politicians hate the jury so much? Simply because it allows citizens a check on the power of the state. Spooner writes:

The powers of juries, therefore, not only place a curb upon the powers of legislators and judges, but imply also an imputation upon their integrity and trustworthiness; and these are the reasons why legislators and judges have formerly entertained the intensest hatred of juries, and, so fast as they could do it without alarming the people for their liberties, have, by indirection, denied, undermined, and practically destroyed their power. And it is only since all the real power of juries has been destroyed, and they have become mere tools in the hands of legislators and judges, that they have become favorites with them.

Legislators and judges are necessarily exposed to all the temptations of money, fame, and power, to induce them to disregard justice between parties, and sell the rights, and violate the liberties of the people. Jurors, on the other hand, are exposed to none of these temptations.

Read the full essay here. It was written over 100 years ago and is still the best explanation of the importance of having an informed jury.