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The Green Bag
sleep, come fresh to the juryroom in the morning, and resume deliberation. If jurymen are in danger of being tampered with after a case is given to them, then
they are in equivalent danger of being tampered with during the progress of
dropping a railroad ticket into her lap. And we have not been locked up while
we were coming to a decision. The whole court theory is mediaeval under its mod ern drabness. Law is supposed to be distilled and codified common sense.
the case.
Law professors tell you so.
The incarceration of the jury is, I hold, against the rights and liberties of citizens.
in court will explode that lofty supersti
It remains from an age when citizens
Two days
tion. Much court procedure has no more excuse for existence than those
were frankly regarded as so many serv
funny red manikins who ride in front
ants of the state (that is, the dominant classes). We are still the servants of
of the governor at Harvard Commence
ment —- a survival of the unfit.
our masters, whether king or corpora tion makes no difference; but we are
The pompousness of legal theory in
rather ashamed of the fact and we try to cover it up. Confinement in a jury room is a dramatic reminder of what our real functions are in a democratic
the face of a fact betrays its unreason. l was allowed four dollars a week for traveling expenses. One week there
resent having to walk down the street
was a holiday and we served only four days. My allowance for traveling ex penses was five dollars and seventy-six cents. I tried to explain to the county paymaster that I should not have more for four days’ expenses than I got other
to supper (or breakfast!) in military or criminal column-by-twos. The judge very
weeks for five days. He looked at me with a slight, non-committal smile and
often has to spend several days in deciding
said in grave tones, "It is a the-ory of the lawr." Eighty cents a day for five days is four dollars; eighty cents a day for four days is five dollars and seventy-six cents. I give it up. The law knows. The law knows why for many years in this state (now, happily,
government. I am willing to give a portion of my time, without pay, to
public business; but I resent the turning of the sheriff's key behind my back. I
a question of law. Why not lock him up until his mind works to a conclusion? I have mislaid a very interesting news
paper cutting. It announced a decision of the Supreme Court bearing on the rights of jurors. If I recall it correctly, the judgment of the court was that a juryman in a criminal case cannot be deprived of mail, newspapers, and other things now forbidden. I should like to see a case brought to determine whether a juryman may be detained over night
or locked into a room without his con sent. I wonder if the time will come when court business will be conducted like any other business. We have all decided, in conference with other men, a thousand more important things than whether a lady's internal unhappiness
is due to the conductor’s negligently
the statute has been changed) if a man
had his arm cut off by a railroad train he had to prove simple negligence on the part of the company and could get what the jury gave him, but if he was
killed, his heirs had to prove gross negli gence and he could not get more than five thousand dollars. The law knows. The law knows. Maybe the legislative agents of the railroad companies have a little inkling of information on that
point. But no matter. I give it up. I cannot understand law facts or law language.
