Trial by an impartial jury: Part I

Celebration of the Anniversary of the Signing of the U.S. Constitution:

Words of wisdom from the author

Trial by an impartial jury.

NBC 10@ Issue

PART I

On Friday, July 19, my wife Jane and I traveled to the television studio of NBC 10 on City Ave in the great City of Brotherly Love.  I’m honored to have been invited to discuss legal issues in the Florida trial of George Zimmerman who was found not guilty a few weeks before on charges of the murder of Trayvon Martin.

The Summer of 1787

 Some might find it surprising that my thoughts turned to what was occurring in Philadelphia 226 years earlier. I guess that’s just the way I think, but in my defense I had just finished preparing  for participation in this half hour T.V. program and, as commonly happens,  the United States Constitution was again pulled from the shelf.

We all know that in the long, hot summer of 1787, the founding fathers were laboring and debating the colossal challenge of establishing the structure of government for a new country. The reader recognizes the anniversary of its signing on September 17, 1787.  

In his letter which was read before the vote was called for the adoption of this “imperfect document”, Ben Franklin wrote:

 “I doubt too whether any other convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views.”

He pleaded with each objector to “doubt a little of his infallibility and to make manifest our unanimity, to put his name on this instrument.”

The wisdom from all that brain power has lived on in the history of mankind. We must continue to inform the people of what we believe can be learned from the experience – what can we do to continue to make this a better world.

Alas the founding fathers did reconcile the prejudice, passions, local interests and selfish views that we all have. We’re human, not infallible. I mention this because we all must get along and work out our prejudices, passions, local interest and selfish views. If they did it then why can’t we do it now?

And this reconciliation among 12 strangers is what every jury must accomplish in every case in order to render a fair and just verdict.  What a difficult, challenging task we assign them! The jurors are hard working, dedicated and true-hearted in their determination of what is justice in each case they hear and are the best example of the people checking and balancing their government. It’s up to the jury to decide if the government’s action taken, including arrest and incarceration of a fellow citizen is justified under the circumstances.

Next week, Part II The Constitution, trial by jury and the Trayvon Martin Case, to be published on my new blog http://justiceorjustthisjudgesprecher.blogspot.com/, on November 13, 2013.