The Constitution for the United States, Its Sources and Its Application Trial by Jury by Lysander Spooner.
DEFINING DEMOCRACY
In a Constitutional Republic democracy is defined by the functioning of fully informed juries, both petit and grand, of ordinary citizens judging both the facts and the law in question. Only as long as juries of ordinary citizens have the final say, government remains the servant, not the master, of the people. Suffrage, the ability of the citizen to vote on governmental issues, does not define democracy, for electoral voting takes place in totalitarian states. Having been elected, there is nothing to stop government from imposing control of an upper house, reneging on pledges, nor from adopting any tyrannical measures it chooses. It is the presence or absence of constitutional adoption and Practical Implementation of the Citizen-Juror’s Right and Duty in Trial by Jury, to judge the justice of every act of law enforcement, which defines, and comprises, the basis of Democracy, without which it could not be. In practice and by definition, government which denies its ordinary citizens the right to judge the justice of the laws and the manner of their enforcement on their fellow citizens at trial, is a despotism. Constitutions which deny the Common Law Trial by Jury Justice System install constitutional despotism. For centuries since 1215, the English people revered and called Magna Carta "the Palladium of the People’s Liberties." The Juror’s Duty to judge the justice of law enforcement in Trial by Jury was the foundation of the People’s sincere belief that all Britons never would be slaves; and that the United Kingdom, the United States, and the numerous post-colonial nations which constitutionally adopted the Common Law Trial by Jury Justice System, were democracies. In the past century, by subtle illegal unconstitutional subterfuge and constructions, and by inadequate education and understanding of the people, those nations too have deteriorated into "multinational corporate bankster fascisms", a despotism of the worst order, as all the population is ensnared and enslaved by the elite few.
NOTE: Definition, Palladium; any safeguard; a symbol, metaphorical or statuary, which represents the protection of the liberties and rights of man. Derived from Pallas Athene, Greek goddess of wisdom and war. Today, the world’s most famous Palladia are the Trial by Jury, and the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. With Trial by Jury holding sway, the People are served, not ruled, by governments, whose laws count for naught unless they be just. At the behest of juries of ordinary citizens, the state is constrained into enforcing only just principles and democratic attitudes which accord with the People’s judgment, such as those represented by common law: fraternity, liberty, egalitarianism, progress and justice. It is only by the diligent upholding of this tried and true concept of Common Law Trial by Jury that all tyranny is nipped in the bud. Not only are bureaucratic and fiscal injustices eliminated, but tyrants, great and petty, are emasculated. The right of the Jury to nullify any unjust, or inhumane law is the true basis of democracy. This enforceable democratic control by the People was emplaced to extend equally over the historic and current ‘religious’ tyrannies, as well as to secular laws, which are suffered under man’s inhumanity to man. Thus, Constitutional Democracies founded on the Common Law Trial by Jury respond to, but cannot initiate, aggression, including wars so-defined. If Trial by Jury had remained operating throughout the European nations, whence it originated, the Hohenzollern and Hitler tyrannies would have been truncated, and the Holocaust, both World Wars, and the wars and "police actions" since then averted.
It is the presence or absence of constitutional adoption and practical implementation of the Citizen-Juror’s RIGHT and DUTY in Trial by Jury, to judge the justice of every act of law enforcement, which defines, and comprises the basis of Democracy, without which it could not be. Jury Nullification of unconstitutional, unjust, or inhumane statutes and laws is the Highest Order of Citizenship.
We must regain the conviction and implementation of Common Law Trial by Jury on which liberty in our country has been based and which Benjamin Franklin so aptly expressed in a phrase applicable to us as individuals no less than as a nation: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
The short article presented below will promote a better understanding of the real purpose of our Courts, ie: for the administration of Justice, not the imposition of a Police State. It is about "How do you plead? Guilty or Not Guilty?"
GUILTY or NOT GUILTY or INNOCENT? Guilt = the fact or state of having done wrong. If you plead “Not Guilty”, you have judged your own actions that you have not done wrong, whether you have done the thing you are accused of doing or not. If the Jury are satisfied that you have not done it, then the charge is false and the case is dismissed with an obligatory “Innocent” verdict. If the facts presented to a Jury prove that you have done that thing, then the Jury must decide was it wrong for you to have done it. If they decide you were wrong, the “Guilty” verdict must be unanimous. If they decide you were not wrong, the “Not Guilty” verdict must also be unanimous. Judges or Magistrates can neither judge you nor overrule the Judgment from a Jury. This is because only a Jury of your own equals has the necessary Level of Jurisdiction (see: Magna Carta). Judges or Magistrates have no Sovereignty over you, whatsoever. The second part of a Jury’s Judgment includes prescribing penalties or awarding damages. Again, no Judge or Magistrate has that authority. If you plead “Guilty”, then you have judged yourself to have done wrong. A Jury of your equals still has to exercise their consciences and decide for themselves that you have done wrong ..... because it is they who must pronounce the sentence and order the Judge or Magistrate (they being agents of the State) to employ the machinery of the State to carry out the penalty or ensure that the penalty is brought about. If you choose not to avail yourself of the Due Process of Trial by Jury, then you must give your clear and unequivocal consent to be without a Jury (as does the other party) - otherwise the Court (being then only a Judge or Magistrate) has no Jurisdiction to proceed summarily, ie; without a Jury, to either try the case or pass Judgment. If a Jury returns a “Not Guilty” verdict, when they are satisfied you did disobey or break a law, then the Jury is said to “nullify” that law, ie: make not binding, render void, to make of no effect. Jury Nullification is evidence of Democracy at work. In conclusion, if you are accused of doing wrong, then it must be proven in a Court and to a Jury of your own equals. A Court is “a place where Justice is administered.” Justice is “the protection of rights and the punishment of wrongs.”
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 On the Web November, 2006 In the Spirit of Love and Peace and Liberty Three mighty important things, Pardn'r, LOVE And PEACE and FREEDOM |
