Trial by jury is more than merely a mechanism for determining whether someone is guilty or innocent. It is the power, retained by a free people, to determine who will lose freedom and who will not. Without the jury, the government and not the people are empowered to make such a determination.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the American Declaration of Independence expressed it in this manner: "I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
"Trial by jury is another constitutional protection for the rights of the people. By assuring that the people themselves participate in the judicial process, governing authorities are prevented from unjustly prosecuting individuals. Trial by jury assumes that the people themselves are the best guardians of their own rights, and that they will release from custody any person unjustly charged. It also allows the people to make unjust laws of no effect with their power of jury nullification."
The Leavitt Institute for International Development is an organization of legal professionals dedicated to advancing knowledge of the jury trial as a critical mechanism to ensure democratic freedom.
