5l6
/ he Green Bag.
the other members of less physical endow ment. It becomes a test of strength as to vho can hold out longest. In such cases there is a presumption that the stronger man's influence with the jury is not measured by his intellectual capacity but by other things which are of very little value in weigh ing the merits and demerits of a case. The brute strength of the jurors becomes an ele ment of great importance in their decisions. If the verdict were rendered by less than twelve, it would perhaps be rendered very soon after the jury entered the room and thus the element of brute strength would be eliminated. So also would be the now ex aggerated importance of the narrow-minded and obstinate juror. It has become a common saying that the best men in the country are not now serving on the juries. It is also a fact that there is such a person as the professional juryman. He is not a high type of man in any way. The men who are the real bulwarks of our society are too busy with their business to think of spending time wrangling with the narrow-minded and obstinate as is the pres ent requirement of the jury system. We want the best men in' the community in the jury box. If we must go into the courts as many of us must sometimes do and through no fault of our own, we want our case tried by the men who have proved by their ability in the actual business world that they have good common sense. We do not want cases of great importance intrusted to a set of men like the professional jurymen of the present time, men who have never shown that they have the ability to make a living except by conniving with court officers and getting drawn as jurors. Such being the case, it is highly important that the ablest men in the community be made, in some way, to do jury duty. The exemptions from jury service at the present time are so many that almost anyone can get excused. It is indeed hard for the judge to
refuse to excuse a man when he knows that the juryman cannot serve without great per sonal sacrifice. Even after the evidence is in and the case summed up by counsel, there is still the long wrangle in the jury room. It is possible that the abolition of the unit rule would make it likely that better men would more often consent to serve on juries than they do now. If less than twelve of the jury might render the verdict the time in the juryroom would be perhaps much cut down. No man should be excused from jury duty except for the most urgent reasons. It is a thing each citizen owes to his country to familiarize himself with the working of its administrative machinery. Nothing is so im portant as human rights and no one should be excused from assisting in their establish ment. Another argument in favor of the abolition of the unit rule is that it would tend to ex pedite appeals to the higher courts. In this way, then, the administration of justice voul3 not be delayed. When a jury fails to agree, the only alternative is to have another trial or to drop the case. One or the other of these two things is all that is left for the parties who are trying to secure justice. It is quite common for them to resort to both alterna tives. After they have exhausted their means in a new trial, they let the case drop and neither party has obtained justice. In modern practice it is very common for all cases that are of any particular import ance to be carried to a higher court than the one which has the original jurisdiction. Be fore the case is begun both litigants have us ually made up their minds not to stop till the matter is finally determined by the court of last resort. As this is the rule of modern litigation, it is of the greatest importance that as little hinclerance as possible should inter fere with the progress of a cause from the lower to the higher courts. Every time a jury disagrees, it is a checking of the progress of the suit to its final adjudication. It delays
