Ben on the Power of a Jury

"If it is not law, it is better than law, it ought to be law, and will always be law wherever justice prevails." Ben Franklin

Since I just received a summons to jury duty, I thought it appropriate to find out what Ben Franklin had to say about the jury system. The quote above was Franklin's reaction to the verdict in the 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger. Zenger, a printer and editor of the "New York Weekly Journal," was charged with sedition and libel for exposing the corruption of the King's appointed governor. Although what he wrote was the truth, writing it was clearly against the law at the time. Zenger freely and defiantly admitted what he had done. His only defense was that he had told the truth. The judge directed a guilty verdict and told the annoyed jury that "the truth is no defense!" But the jury was persuaded that the truth of what Zenger had written justified disregarding, or "nullifying" the unjust law. Zenger was aquitted.

Franklin approved of the decision and spoke here in favor of a jury having the power to acquit someone found to have violated a law, if the law itself is unjust. Of course, today's courts frown upon jurors sitting in judgement of the law itself. And, given the verdicts in some highly publicized celebrity trials, maybe the public would not want juries to have that power either. I don't know. Franklin's views may have arisen in a simpler time. Even so, I don't think I could vote for conviction if I thought the law that was violated was completely unjust.