Studies in Civics. J. T. McCleary
it was committed by the person accused, the county attorney is called upon to frame a formal accusation against him, called an indictment, which is endorsed with the words "a true bill," and sent to the court. Upon the indictment the person accused is arrested and tried.
If the evidence against the accused is insufficient to warrant indictment, but yet his innocence is questionable, the grand jury may bring a presentment against him. This is an informal statement in writing addressed to the court setting forth the offense and stating that there is a reasonable probability that a certain person, named, has committed it. A person arrested on a presentment is examined before a justice of the peace or other magistrate, as if arrested on a complaint. Neither an indictment nor a presentment can issue except upon concurrence of the number of grand jurors specified by statute. Under former practice the jury numbered twenty-three and the concurrence of twelve was necessary.
The grand jury is bound to investigate the charge against any one held by a justice "to await the action of the grand jury;" also any charge brought by a member of the grand jury. And conversely it is the sworn duty of each member to report any crime known by him to have been committed within the county. Any outsider may file information or bring charges, but the grand jury may use its own judgment as to the necessity of investigating them.
Petit Jury.—A petit jury is a body of twelve men impaneled and sworn in a district court to try and determine by a true and unanimous verdict, any question or issue of fact, in any civil or criminal action or proceeding, according to law and the evidence as given them in court.
The mode of selecting petit jurors is in general the same as that pursued in selecting grand jurors. The "list of persons qualified to serve" is, however, usually larger. The "selection by lot" is made thus: slips of paper, each containing one of the names, are folded and deposited in a box. The box is shaken, and the prescribed number of slips is drawn. The persons whose names thus appear are summoned as jurors.
When an action is called for trial by jury, the clerk draws from the jury box the ballots containing the names of the jurors, "until the jury is completed or the ballots exhausted." If necessary, the sheriff under direction of the court summons bystanders or others in the county to complete the jury. Such persons are called talesmen.
To secure an impartial jury, each party may object to or "challenge," a number of the jurors. The challenge may be "peremptory" or "for cause." The peremptory challenge, as its name implies, is one in which no reason need be assigned. The number of such challenges must, of course, be limited. In civil suits it is usually limited to three by each party. In criminal cases, the state has usually two peremptory challenges and the defendant five. If the offense is punishable with death or state prison for life, the state has in Minnesota seven peremptory challenges and the defendant twenty.
Challenges for cause may be either general or particular. A general challenge of a proposed juror may be made on the basis of his incompetency or unworthiness to act in such capacity in any action. A particular challenge may be based on some bias in this particular case which would unfit the proposed juror for rendering an impartial verdict.
Habeas Corpus.—Not connected directly with trials but related to the district court is the writ of habeas corpus. This is the most famous writ in law, and has been styled "the chief bulwark of liberty." It was designed originally to secure a person from being detained in prison without due process of law, and it served as a mighty check upon arbitrary power. Its operation has been extended so as to include any detention against the will of the person detained. The writ, as will be seen by reference to the appendix (p. 290), commands the person holding another in custody to bring him before the judge and show cause for the detention. If the judge finds that the prisoner is detained for cause he remands him to custody; if not he orders his discharge.
Concluding Remarks.—This discussion might easily be continued. Volumes have been written on the administration of justice. But perhaps enough has been given to show that great care is taken to protect the interests of the innocent and to do equal and exact justice to all. In view of flippant remarks sometimes made regarding courts of justice, it is pertinent and proper to go at least so far into detail. The study of Civil Government will have been pursued to little purpose if respect for law be not one of its fruits.
Some Pertinent Questions
How many judicial districts in this state? [Footnote: Consult Legislative Manual.] How many counties in the largest? In the smallest? How many have more than one judge? Why not let each county constitute a judicial district?
If some one owed you $40 and refused to pay, in what court could you sue?
If he owed you $250? If the suit involved $1,000,000?
What is the relation of the plea to the action? Can anything be proved which is not alleged in the plea? Show the purpose of each rule of pleading. Of each rule of evidence.
What are the differences between a grand jury and a petit jury? Why is each so named?
If a person accused of crime is examined and held by a justice of the peace, as stated in a previous chapter, must he be indicted by a grand jury before he can be tried? Why? May a person's acts be inquired into by the grand jury without his knowing anything about it? May grand jurors reveal the proceedings of the jury? Why?
Why is there such a thing as a peremptory challenge of a juror? Why so many given to a person accused of crime?
Are lawyers officers of the court? What oath does each take on admission to the bar?
Questions for Debate
Resolved, That trial by jury has outlived its usefulness.
Resolved, That capital punishment is not justifiable.
References.—Dole's Talks about Law; Lieber's Civil Liberty and Self Government, 234–6; The Century, November 1882; Atlantic Monthly, July 1881; North American Review, March 1882 and July 1884.
[Illustration: Papers—Prepare with care the "tabular views" of the town, village, city and county, as follows]
CHAPTER VIII.
HISTORICAL.
Old England.—Not only our language but also very many of our political institutions we have inherited from England. But the country now called by that name is not the real old England. The fatherland of the English race is the isthmus in the northern part of Germany which we now call Schleswig. Here dwelt the old Angles or English. To the north of them in Jutland was the tribe called the Jutes, and to the south of them, in what we now call Holstein and Friesland, dwelt the Saxons. "How close was the union of these tribes was shown by their use of a common name, while the choice of this name points out the tribe which at the moment when we first meet them, in the fifth century, must have been the most powerful in the confederacy." [Footnote: Green's History of the English People.] Among themselves they bore in common the name of Englishmen.
Among the characteristics of those German ancestors of ours are the following: They were very independent; the free landholder was "the free-necked man." The ties of kinship were very strong. "Each kinsman was his kinsman's keeper, bound to protect him from wrong, to hinder him from wrong-doing, and to suffer with and pay for him if wrong were done." [Footnote: Green's History of the English People.] They were very much attached to home. "Land with the German race seems everywhere to have been the accompaniment of full freedom. … The landless man ceased for all practical purposes to be free, though he was no man's slave." [Footnote: Green's History of the English People.] Among themselves they were quite social. Though tillers of the soil they lived, not isolated, but grouped together in small villages. This may have been partly for mutual protection. They were lovers of law and order.
The Township.[Footnote: See American Political Ideas, pp. 31–63.]—The derivation of the word "township" shows us to whom we are indebted for the institution itself. The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon tun-scipe. Tun meant hedge, ditch or defense; and scipe, which we have also in landscape, meant what may be seen. Around the village before mentioned was the