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[Basil Fishbone]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig12/doig1.1.1.html

Guerrilla Jurors: Sticking it to Leviathan

by Don Doig and Stewart Rhodes

Citizens in our (once) free republic founded under the English common law system, have both the power and the right to vote according to conscience when they sit on a jury and can vote not guilty even in the face of the law and in the face of the evidence. The defendant also has a right to expect that his jury will be fully informed of their rightful power to vote "not guilty" if they believe justice requires it, regardless of the evidence. Anything less is not a real jury trial.

The jury issues no opinion, gives no explanation of its decision. It simply renders its verdict, and if the verdict is "not guilty," that acquittal cannot be questioned or overturned by any court. It is telling that a conviction can be overturned, but an acquittal cannot – the deck is stacked on the side of the liberty of the individual on trial. While a judge can overturn a jury conviction that in his judgment is unsupported by the evidence, or where the jury harbors prejudicial animus toward the defendant, the judge cannot overturn an acquittal even if the evidence is overwhelming – even if the defendant admits on the stand that he did the actions of which he is accused. ...<snip>...

[iloilo]

 

Bravo!
Splendid!
Exceedingly well done!
Way to go!
{{{hugs}}}
ff

[Basil Fishbone]

http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/04/24/guerrilla-jurors-sticking-it-to-leviathan/
 

NOTE FROM STEWART:

Sincere thanks go out to Don Doig, Founder of FIJA, for inviting me to co-author this article, and to Lew Rockwell, of LewRockwell.com for publishing it at his site.  The jury is a critical institution.  It is as fundamentally critical to liberty as is the militia, and as is our right to bear arms.  As the saying goes, we have “four boxes of liberty”: the soap box (freedom of speech and assembly), the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.  We must guard each of them with equal resolve and jealousy, for they truly are our great shields against tyranny.

Denial of the ancient right of jury trial was one of the causes of our Revolution, as was clearly stated in The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, written July 4, 1776 (commonly known as the Declaration of Independence), where the Founders condemned the King “For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury” and for claiming the power “to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws” (courts of admiralty).    Jury trial was an ancient right of Englishmen, considered by our Founders to be a non-negotiable right of the colonists, for which they were willing to fight and die.

And yet, even now it is under relentless assault, both by willful judges and prosecutors who deny the full right and power of the jury, as  discussed in our article, and and also by willful Presidents who illicitly claim the power to strip Americans of this fundamental right by designating us “unlawful combatants.”   First Lincoln, then FDR, and now Bush and Obama have claimed the power to apply the international laws of war to American citizens, precisely as if we were foreign enemies in wartime, and try us by military tribunal rather than by jury in a civilian, Article III court.   The more things change, the more they remain the same.  Our forefathers fought a bloody Revolution against such outrageous claims of power, and yet here we are, facing the same claim of power to subject us to a jurisdiction FOREIGN to our Constitution – the international laws of war.   And under this doctrine, Obama also claims the power to simply assassinate us, if he thinks it necessary for “national security.”

We must stand like a rock and refuse to give even a shred of legitimacy to any such outrageous claims of power, regardless of which party is in the White House.   And if the political and legal elites persist in this claim of power, we must resist it with as much fire and defiance as our Forefathers.   The right to jury trial is our last shield of liberty, and our last resort short of an appeal to arms and to the God of hosts.  Remember that, and act accordingly.  – Stewart Rhodes

[Junker]

Sit up very, very straight...

                       and hold out.

[Elias Alias]

It was nice to see that this thread about the article shows up on the first page of a Google search for the article. Thanks for posting this, Basil.
And congrats to "Don Doig" and "Stewart Rhodes", whoever they may be...

Salute!
Elias

[ZooT_aLLures]

Back in the 1860's Lysander Spooner wrote of the injustice arising from both the defense and the prosecution being allowed to filter through potential jurists in order to build a stacked deck............

[socalserf]

From the linked article;
'Serving on a jury should be viewed as a form of liberty guerrilla warfare in the current "soft" or cold war between the forces of liberty and the forces of tyranny. We'd better use it while we can before the war goes hot. Besides, It's good practice. We need to exercise our liberty muscles and our own cunning and resolve in the face of adversity. Step into the ring!'

Very nice!