Courts -- United States; Trial practice -- United States
"Always look out for the juryman who asks your witness questions. He
is against you. If he absolutely believed the witness he would let it
pass without questioning." This reasoning may be used as an argument
either way, for if the juryman believes the witness he may feel that
he should like to have him tell more. Or if he does not accept him as
truthful, he thinks it will not be worth while to ask him other
questions. An inference may be drawn as to the juror's attitude for
and against.
An inexplicable thing to the jury is when the judge takes the case
away from them and directs a verdict or dismissal of the complaint.
That the jury should be compelled to listen to all that mass of
testimony and then at the end not have a chance to decide is
unreasonable. If the plaintiff did not have a case, why did the judge
let them go on? He should have found it out earlier instead of wasting
all that time.
After the whole case is in, it may happen that both sides move for a
direction of the verdict and then the jury have nothing to do. The
judge says:
"Gentlemen of the Jury, I direct you to find a verdict for so-and-so."
Before they have a chance to say whether they will or will not, the
clerk announces a verdict for so-and-so. This is very annoying and
discouraging, especially when the jury were going to find a verdict
directly contrary to the way the judge decided. Technically they have
a right to refuse to find a verdict as the judge directs, but if they
did, only a mis-trial would result.
It is an illustration of the difference between the function of a
judge and a jury. The jury pass on the facts, the judge on the law.
When the judge dismisses the case, he is saying that the facts may be
so and what happened may be truly stated, but even then it does not
make any difference. The law is that those facts do not make out a
case. Only when the facts make out a case do the jury have any
function. Then it is for them to find out whether the facts are as the
plaintiff claims them to be or as the defendant. The jury are usually
puzzled and do not understand the distinction. In certain cases the
judge determines both the facts and the law and decides the whole
matter. In those cases, and in what is known as equity, there are no
jury, but a judge may always ask for a jury if he wishes one to
determine the facts.
A jury is supposed to be advantageous to the defendant in a criminal
action and to the plaintiff in a civil action.
"One judge is better than twelve," says the advocate of the non-jury
system. "Law is a technical thing and you can not put a technical case
plainly enough so that twelve men could thoroughly understand it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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