DUTIES OF JURYMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13523, 22 August 1907, Page 6

DUTIES OF JURYMEN.

REMARKS BY MR. JUSTICE COOPER/ [BY TELKGRAni.— CORRESPONDENT. J Wellington, Wednesday. - In his summing up in the "two-up" case, at the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Cooper made some strong and pointed remarks concerning the. responsibilities of jurymen. His Honor, as reported by the Post, slated that the onus that a juryman had upon him was one- of the. most important and responsible that could fall to .any citizen. The juryman stood between the Crown and the accused, as one of the Ministers of Justice in the proper carrying nut of the laws of the land. Further, each juryman had taken a solemn oath which His Honor still believed was binding upon the average juryman's conscience to decide the case upon the evidence, not according to the inflammatory speech of counsel, but upon the oath which they solemnly.took. The jury, and ho said it solemnly, had no right, 'because they might think a prosecution ill-advised—and when he said that ho did not think he could say it any strongerto disregard the oath they had taken to try the case according to the evidence. If a law was a bad law it was the duty of the Legislature to amend it. It was not for the jury to take Upon itself to say by its verdict that it did not agree with the* law. They would see at once that if the jury disregarded the evidence in a case because they did not agree with the law of the land, there would be no safety for the community. _ What would be thought of a judge who said, "I am not going to administer the law I am here sworn to administer, because I don't believe in that law. I am going to put myself above the law and refuse to administer it."