Ogden Daily Standard | 1903-05-14 | Page 4 | Juries in the Old Days

aarlea in abe old day in olden times when a jury in england remained impervious to the judges gentle mode of persuasion fine and imprisonment were resorted to the ury that acquitted sir nicholas throckmorton was condemned to eight months imprisonment in addition to the payment of a large sum of money in the ot queen elizabeth a jury having reduced a prisoners alleged crime of murder to that of manslaughter was at once sent to prison and bound over in a large sum to be of good behavior penalties were likewise inflicted upon the innocent wife and children of the offending juryman jurymen jury men even now it Is believed by some legal authorities that a judge has the right to inflict a fine upon a juryman refusing to obey his directions such power Is however not exercised except in the case of a juror absenting himself without a justifiable cause of this practice there is the following story A judge had fined a juryman for nonattendance on bearing that be had been unable to be present because of hta cifes funeral the judge whose wife was said to be not of a particularly gentle nature exclaimed has he that was a good excuse indeed I 1 wish we all had the samel