Citizens Jury

Where exactly in the Constitution does a citizens jury get its power to exist?

U.S. Constitution: Seventh Amendment

[James]

Jim is correct, also see infra.


Constitution for the United States Of America


Article III Section 2 clause 3: "The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury;..."


&

so based on this, a citizen's jury can be private people set up without them being appointed by a statutory court?

Who the H*** created the courts And the constitution in the first place?


Jim

good point Jim. Ok, so if a citizen's jury was to adjudicate a claim or private process,etc., would they issue a common law judgment in favor of the winner which would be similar to what the statutory courts do?

Not yet. They do a finding of facts.


Jim

[husky2kawi]

Will the jury be called upon to testify in court???

Pam

Can't see why. The jury is greater than the court.

Prof. Jim

[Rory]

A few years ago on my local talk show they had on a State Supreme Court Justice and the topic of Juries came up. Following is the transcript.....



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)