JUDGE GARDNER -- The Verdict

Occasionally there are stories in the paper about runaway juries --

juries that seem to disregard whatever facts have been presented. They

make decisions based on some rationale outside the courtroom.

Every time this happens, there is all sorts of hand wringing about the

jury system. After all my years in a courtroom, I am a big believer in

it.

Time and again I would see twelve ordinary people come into a

courtroom where they were presented with various facts and opinions. In a

criminal case they might be deciding the matter of a man’s life. In a

civil case, it might be a very complicated business deal gone awry.

Almost every time they got it right, doing exactly what they were

instructed to do -- putting aside whatever prejudices they might hold

outside the courtroom and deciding the matter on the basis of the

information presented. Still, there are the exceptions, like the one my

father told me about.

This was shortly after the Civil War. Emotions on both sides were

still high. In the South, there was a general animosity toward

Carpetbaggers -- Northern adventurers who went down to take advantage of

the postwar chaos. In the North, this emotion was directed toward

Copperheads. A Copperhead was a Northerner who had openly sympathized

with the South.

The case my father referred to took place in Iowa shortly after the

conclusion of the war. It seemed that a man I shall call Peter Smith shot

and killed a man I will call Robert Brown. Peter was tried for murder and

found not guilty in a verdict which read as follows:

“We, the jury find Peter Smith, who served with Grant at Shiloh, not

guilty of murdering that dirty Copperhead Robert Brown.”

The judge read the verdict, tore it up and told the jury to bring in a

simple verdict, either that Peter Smith was guilty or that he was not

guilty, no more.

The jury marched out for a brief deliberation and then marched back in

with another verdict:

“We the jury find Peter Smith not guilty of murdering Robert Brown.

P.S. It’s a damned good thing for Peter that he served with Grant at

Shiloh.”

It makes a simple “guilty” or “not guilty” seem a little prosaic.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.