As a moral proposition, it is perfectly self-evident that, unless
juries have all the legal rights that have been claimed for them
in the preceding chapters, that is, the rights of judging what
the law is, whether the law be a just one, what evidence is
admissible, what weight the evidence is entitled to, whether an
act were done with a criminal intent, and the right also to limit
the sentence, free of all dictation from any quarter, they have
no moral right to sit in the trial at all, and cannot do so
without making themselves accomplices in any injustice that they
may have reason to believe may result from their verdict. It is
absurd to say that they have no moral responsibility for the use
that may be made of their verdict by the government, when they
have reason to suppose it will be used for purposes of injustice.
It is, for instance, manifestly absurd to say that jurors have no
moral responsibility for the enforcement of an unjust law, when
they consent to render a verdict of guilty for the transgression
of it; which verdict they know, or have good reason to believe,
will be used by the government as a justification for inflicting
a penalty.
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