Customer Reviews

In the Hands of the People: The Trial Jury's Origins, Triumphs, Troubles, and Future in American Democracy

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Judge Dwyer shows a great respect and insight into the importance of the jury system to maintaining democratic government and liberty in America. In spite of some areas where he has accepted conventional wisdom instead of actually researching the issues involved (such as where he accepts the myth that racist jury nullification was widespread during the civil rights era. The best researched work on this is in Clay S. Conrad's book Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine, in which he shows that most of the acquittals in lynching and civil rights murder cases were due to prosecutors, judges and police being unwilling to pursue such cases to conviction, and not to the actions of jurors) the book is an excellent exposition of the importance of trial by jury.

The real question should be: does anyone care? Trial by jury continues to fall into disfavor with a population that doesn't want to do the heavy lifting on its own. Should we depend on government to do the heavy lifting for us, we shouldn't be surprised that our most important rights atrophy and die. The opposite of trial by jury (also known as trial by one's country) is trial by government. So long as we have a panel of citizens acting as a bulwark between us and our government, we have some protection against government excess and oppression. This is the lesson from history that Judge Dwyer colorfully and dramatically brings home.

This book provides a terrific historical perspective as to why the jury system is so important to our form of democracy. A quoted in this book, Thomas Jefferson wrote that it is more important for a citizen of this country to sit on a jury than it is for her to vote in an election. In today's world of out-of-control corporate greed, it is nice to see at least one author taking the bold steps of presenting the truth. Corporate america does not fear our politicians or the government. The only voice that big business fears is that of the jury. It is only the jury that can control bis business in today's society. Why? because it only a jury that can speak the language that corporate america understands - money. Without the jury, we will further slip into a world of the haves and the have nots. This is a must read. I only wish I could buy a copy for everyone I know.

This is for those who know a little but not a lot about why juries are so precious in America. With clarity and brilliance, Dwyer makes the case for the jury. For me, he also, unwittingly I think, made the case that I should not avoid serving on a jury notwithstanding the nuisance value of doing so. Much to everyone's and America's loss, he lost his life at about the same time as this book was published, but he left us with a superb work based on his legal experiences and his long-time service as a federal district judge in Seattle.