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Special Thanks to jury activist and executive director of the American
Jury
Institute, Iloilo Jones, for requesting a jury rights day proclamation
from Governor Sarah Palin.
WHEREAS, September 5, 2008, will mark the 338th anniversary of the day
when the jury, in the trial of William Penn, refused to convict him of
violating England’s Conventicle Acts, despite clear evidence that he
acted illegally by preaching a Quaker sermon to his congregation.
WHEREAS, by refusing to apply what they determined was an unjust law,
the Penn jury not only served justice, but provided a basis for the
U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment rights of freedom of speech,
religion, and peaceable assembly.
WHEREAS, September 5th, 2008, also commemorates the day when four of
Penn’s jurors began nine weeks of incarceration for finding him not
guilty. Their later release and exoneration established forever the
English and American legal doctrine that it is the right and
responsibility of the trial jury to decide on matters of law and fact.
WHEREAS, the Sixth and Seventh Amendments are included in the Bill of
Rights to preserve the right to trial by jury, which in turn conveys
upon the jury the responsibility to defend, with its verdict, all other
individual rights enumerated or implied by the U.S. Constitution,
including its Amendments.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the State of Alaska, do
hereby proclaim September 5, 2008, as:
Jury Rights Day
in Alaska, in recognition of the integral role the jury, as an
institution, plays in our legal system.
Frank says:
Our founding fathers gave us trial by jury to check and balance
government laws, whether they come from Congress or your own state
legislator. For the past 16 years Frank has been informing and
educating Alaskans, young and old, about our rights and
responsibilities when sitting on a jury. Judges excuse jurors in the
event a juror admits he knows his jury nullification rights. As a
juror, you have the right to judge the laws and the facts. Frank is
also educating people about the true use of the Grand Jury - not only
indictment, but the lesser known second function: presentment.
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