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Fully_Informed_Juries.txt
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1996-07-08
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From the Radio Free Michigan archives
ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot
If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to
bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu.
------------------------------------------------
The refusal of juries to convict figured prominently in the repeal of
alcohol prohibition. Faced with gun prohibition, it behooves us to
understand the _real_ powers of juries to judge the law as well as the
facts in a case (despite patently incorrect instructions to juries by
judges).
*************************************************************************
* Edgar A. Suter, MD suter@crl.com *
* Chair, DIRPP Doctors for Integrity in Research & Public Policy *
*************************************************************************
This is a letter explaining the FIJA bill before the Washington State
Legislature and what you can do to help. This message is divided into
three sections.
SECTION 1: WHAT IS FIJA
SECTION 2: WHAT CAN YOU DO
SECTION 3: SECTION 3:FIJA BILL 4205 WORDING
SECTION 1: WHAT IS FIJA
A. The FIJA Bill: permits attorneys to tell the jury of their
inherent right, in addition to their responsibility to decide whether the
defendant has broken the law or caused damage, to judge the law itself.
This means if a particular law is unjust , unconstitutional or simply
misapplied they may vote not guilty and acquit the defendant even if you
think the defendant committed the act." FIJA doesn't give the jury any
more rights, it just permits them to be told of the ones they now have.
B. Historical Background: The Royal Governor of New York colony,
while we were still part of England, had a law passed against publishing
information about his corruption. John Peter Zenger printed materials
critical to the governor and his friends, and was arrested. Andrew
Hamilton, Zenger's attorney, argued to the jurors that they were judges
of the merits of the law and should not go against good conscience by
convicting Zenger of violating such a bad law. He was acquitted.
The Supreme Court, in 1895, said it was up to the judge to decide whether
the jury would be told of this right unless the state had a statute or
constitution that provided other wise. They did this in an effort to stop
labor union organizers from being freed by juries that thought it was
wrong to pass laws against workers forming unions.
The Supreme Court did not say the jury could not judge the law as well as
fact.
We still have the right to do this today as we have no punishment for
jurors that bring in verdicts different than what the judge wants. The
judge may even tell the jury that the judge is the only one to decide the
law but this is not correct as there is no penalty for a juror that
follows his or her conscience nor are they required to explain their
decision.
C. The Problem: Anyone involved in a jury trial deserves jurors
that bear full responsibility for deciding on a just verdict. The
defendant has a right to a full and fair hearing which depends upon the
jury knowing all its rights and responsibilities. Lawyers are not now
permitted to tell them about these rights unless the court gives its
approval. This has resulted in a whole generation of people that do not
know what they can do on a jury.
Instead we have jury's that are bringing in verdicts and then apologizing
to the defendant because they knew it was a bad decision but they did not
know they could vote not guilty if it was an unconstitutional law or
didn't apply.
We have people being put through the grinder by laws that should not be
used against them. Laws that were meant to counter serious crime are
being used to destroy people who are basically innocent or only guilty of
minor infractions. One reason we have a jury is to keep the laws from
being applied incorrectly.
Freedom means a lot to me and I believe it means the same to you but
almost every day we lose another little bit of it. Like grains of sand
going through an hourglass, each grain is almost unnoticed but after a
while it is all gone.
D. What it doesn't do: Jurors may do no more than find the
defendant guilty as charged so they cannot invent laws that the defendant
is guilty of committing. If a jury brings back a not guilty verdict then
only the defendant under trial is released and the law still remains in
force.
SECTION 2: WHAT CAN YOU DO
A. Call or write your Washington State Representative or Senator
and ask her or him to support FIJA. Please email me or send me a letter
and let me know what they said. My email address is clae@eznet.com and my
regular mail address is FIJA, POB 141774, Spokane, WA 99214.
B. If you have a list of Senators and Representatives with
addresses and phone numbers (FAX numbers) etc. please send them to me by
email, see above for address. Representative Steve Fuhrman submitted this
bill. Please call him at 1-360-786-7908 and thank him for all he has done
for us. His address is Room 412, Legislative Building, Olympia, WA
98504(The old area code is 206 but both are supposed to work for a few
months).
C. If you have any email addresses, regular address, or phone
numbers of groups or people that you think might be interested please
send them to me. I do not subscribe to very many groups because of time
constraints so send them to me directly. Please mark email as FIJA in the
subject column.
D. This is a Washington State Constitutional Amendment so it
first has to be passed by two-thirds of the legislature and it then goes
for a vote of the people. We are in for a long hard fight. If we are
going to win it we must start building a war chest now. Please send
checks or credit card donations to FIJA, POB 141774, Spokane, WA 99214.
If possible, please sign up for a monthly credit card donation. It will
automatically be added to your credit card bill each month. Even small
donations will add up to a winning amount.
SECTION 3:FIJA BILL 4205 WORDING
BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
STATE OF WASHINGTON, IN LEGISLATIVE SESSION ASSEMBLED:
THAT, At the next general election to be held in this state there
shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the state for their
approval and ratification, or rejection, an amendment to Article IV,
section 16 of the Constitution of the state of Washington to read as follows:
Article IV, section 16. (1) Judges shall not charge juries with
respect to matters of fact, nor comment thereon, but shall declare the
law, except as provided in subsection (2) of this section.
(2) An accused or aggrieved party's right to trial by jury, in
all instances where the government or any of its agencies is an opposing
party, includes the right to inform the jurors of their power to judge
the law as well as the evidence, and to vote on the verdict according to
conscience.
This right shall not be infringed by any statute, juror oath,
court order or procedure or practice of the court, including the use of
any method of jury selection that could preclude or limit the empanelment
of jurors willing to exercise this power. This right shall not be
infringed by preventing any party to the trial, once the jurors have been
informed of their powers, from presenting arguments to the jury that may
pertain to issues of law and conscience, including (a) the merit, intent,
constitutionality, or applicability of the law in the instant case: (b)
the motives, moral perspective, or circumstances of the accused or
aggrieved party: (c) the degree and direction of guilt or actual harm
done: or (d) the sanctions that may be applied to the losing party.
Failure to allow the accused or aggrieved party or counsel for
that party to so inform the jury shall be grounds for mistrial and
another trial by jury.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the secretary of state shall cause
notice of the foregoing constitutional amendment to be published at least
four times during the four weeks next preceding the election in every
legal newspaper in the state.
Thank you for considering this measure and for your time.
In Freedom,
Steven C. Jayne
email clae@eznet.com
Please mark email as FIJA in the subject column.
regular mail POB 141774,
Spokane, WA
99214-1774
------------------------------------------------
(This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the
Radio Free Michigan archives by the archive maintainer.
All files are ZIP archives for fast download.
E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)