26 Jan y 1808

Codification - Jury Trial

Jury Trial

Cutting[?]

Here then for the purpose of causing a man to be put to death, fr this purpose all men without distinction, the most ignorant included /not excluded are supposed not only to be apprized[?] of the existence of the law by which the being that dealt with is made the consequence of the act of cutting[?] accompanied with the bad intentions therein described - apprized of its existence , and to the effect in question approved of the meaning of the several words of which it is composed /by which it stands expressed/, the words cut and cutting among the rest. But when[?] for the purpose of sitting in judgment on an accusation charging a man with having committed the[?] forbidden act of this description, a man of a class superior /superior to the table[?] of the [...?]/ in point /respect/ of condition of life ad the portion of knowledge naturally attached to it, and on account of such [...?] superiority selected, is placed in the situation of a Judge, then it is that because not being he is not a professionally bred lawyer /Judge/, he is regarded by those who are professionally bred lawyers, as a man incapable of understanding ad not it to be treated [...?] what it is that cutting is /the word cut and cutting mean/. That the individual accused has been guilty of offending against the law by which a [...?] of death the act of cutting is [...?] accompanied with the evil [...?] in question made a capital offence is what they are indeed permitted to decide: but the act /word/ of cutting being one of the number of the words employed in the law, and the question concerning the import of it being accordingly a question of law and professionally bred lawyers the only persons capable /qualified/ of understanding /o decide in/ questions of law, and the Jury men[?] [...?] of them professionally bred lawyers shame it is that their having pronounced the accused guilty of the act of cutting accompanied with he evil instances in question is not a sufficient warrant for the declaring him guilty.