That an honest man could whistle for
his justice and might better straightway put on his hat and go
home. That the only way to punish a criminal was to punish
him yourself--kill him if you got the chance or get the crowd
to lynch him. That if a thief stole from you the shrewdest
thing to do was to induce him as a set-off to give you the
proceeds of his next thieving. That it was humiliating to
live in a town where a self-confessed rascal could snap his
fingers at the law and go unwhipped of justice.
The jury's action must have been due either to a wilful
disregard of their oath or an entire misconception of it.
Assuming that the jury deliberately declined to obey the law,
the whole twelve elected to become, and thereby did become,
lawbreakers. They disqualified themselves forever as
talesmen. No prosecutor in his senses would move a case
before a jury which numbered any one of them. They had
arraigned themselves upon the side, and under the standard, of
crime. They became accessories after the fact.
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