A MEDICAL STUDY OF THE JURY SYSTEM. 375 

 A MEDICAL STUDY OF THE JURY SYSTEM. 



Br T. D. CROTHEES, M. D. 



THE uncertainty of jurors, and the capricious, whimsical 

 character of their verdicts, are accepted as inevitable, and 

 explained as part of the natural weakness of the mind. It is 

 assumed that, if the facts are clearly presented, a jury will give a 

 common-sense verdict, which will approximate the truth and 

 human jnstice. Where they fail, it is due to the confusion of 

 testimony, the misrepresentation of counsel, and the general 

 perversion of facts. Many thoughtful men consider the judg- 

 ment of twelve men, who are disinterested, superior and on 

 general matters of dispute of far more reliable character than 

 the judgment of one trained man. Yet literally, the verdicts of 

 twelve men, based on the same set of facts, differ widely, and can 

 never be anticipated ; and, whether wise or unwise, are clearly due 

 to other influences than the commonly supposed conflict of facts 

 and motives of truth and justice. 



While it would be difficult to doubt the motive and intent of 

 the average juror to be just and fair in his conclusions, it would 

 seem that certain conditions and surroundings make it impossill3 

 in most cases to either understand the case in question or the 

 principles of equity involved. The theoretical and ideal jury to 

 whom are daily referred questions of life and death, and often 

 momentous interests concerning families and individuals, is never 

 seen in real life. The delusions of the court room, that the twelve 

 men set apart for this duty are endowed with a large and suffi- 

 cient mental capacity for the discernment of justice, is far from 

 being true in reality. 



From a medical and scientific point of view, the average twelve 

 men who are appealed to by the counsel and judge to wisely 

 determine the issue of a case are usually incompetent naturally, 

 and are generally placed in the worst possible conditions and sur- 

 roundings to even exercise average common sense in any disputed 

 case. 



In a noted trial at Hartford, Conn., out of a panel of one 

 hundred jurors, twelve men were finally selected after a long, 

 searching inquiry. Five of them were farmers, who worked hard 

 every day in the open air, men who were unaccustomed to think 

 or reason, except in a narrow way along their surroundings and 

 line of work. These men all swore that they had not read any 

 details of the case, although it occupied a large share of public 

 attention and had been discussed freely in all the papers. They 

 were muscle workers, with but little mental exercise, living c n 

 coarse, healthy food, and sleeping from early evening to early 



