"
It is absurd, also, to say that jurors have no moral
responsibility for any cruel or unreasonable sentence that may be
inflicted even upon a guilty man, when they consent to render a
verdict which they have reason to believe will be used by the
government as a justification for the infliction of such
sentence.
The consequence is, that jurors must have the whole case in their
hands, and judge of law, evidence, and sentence, or they incur
the moral responsibility of accomplices in any injustice which
they have reason to believe will be done by the government on the
authority of their verdict.
The same principles apply to civil cases as to criminal. If a
jury consent, at the dictation of the court, as to either law or
evidence, to render a verdict, on the strength of which they have
reason to believe that a man's property will be taken from him
and given to another, against their own notions of justice, they
make themselves morally responsible for the wrong.
Every man, therefore, ought to refuse to sit in a jury, and to
take the oath of a juror, unless the form of the oath be such as
to allow him to use his own judgment, on every part of the case,
free of all dictation whatsoever, and to hold in his own hand a
veto upon any verdict that can be rendered against a defendant,
and any sentence that can be inflicted upon him, even if he be
guilty.
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