This uncertainty explains the character of passion which is so
often perceptible in criminal trials.
And, in proportion to the march of civilisation, juries in important
trials will become more timid and hesitating. The weight of
responsibility oppresses the man of conscientious scruple. Already
numbers recoil from the idea of capital punishment; and, whenever a jury
can find a peg to hang a doubt on, they will wash their hands of the
responsibility of condemnation. We have seen numbers of persons signing
appeals for mercy to a condemned malefactor, condemned for what crime?
Parricide! Every juror, from the moment he is sworn, weighs infinitely
less the evidence he has come to listen to than the risk he runs of
incurring the pangs of remorse. Rather than risk the condemnation of one
innocent man, he will allow twenty scoundrels to go unpunished.
The accusation must then come before the jury, armed at all points, with
abundant proofs. A task often tedious to the investigating magistrate,
and bristling with difficulties, is the arrangement and condensation of
this evidence, particularly when the accused is a cool hand, certain of
having left no traces of his guilt.
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