Newsgroups: alt.drugs
From: [Floyd Landrath] at [f69.n105.z1.fidonet.org] (Floyd Landrath)
Subject: CITIZENS' RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 01:10:18 GMT
AMERICAN ANTI-PROHIBITION LEAGUE
&
FULLY INFORMED JURY ASSOCIATION
4017 SE Belmont Street, Box 103
Portland, Ore. U.S.A. 97214
(503)235-4524 - AAL
(503)291-7439 - FIJA
January 24, 1994
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PUBLIC MEETINGS NOTICE
The American Anti-Prohibition League and the Fully
Informed Jury Association (FIJA) will begin offering an on-
going course of instruction called the Citizens' Rights and
Responsibilities - the Criminal Justice System Exposed.
These meetings will take place at 333 S.W. Park Ave,
4th floor, in Portland, Oregon, beginning Monday, February
7th, 1994 at 7:30 p.m. and will meet every-other Monday
thereafter. The course is free and open to all.
The schedule for 1994 is as follows:
February 7 & 21 July 11 & 25
March 7 & 21 August 8 & 22
April 4 & 18 September 5 & 19
May 2, 16 & 30 October 3, 17 & 31
June 13 & 27 November 14 & 28
December 12 & 26
One of the supporting pillars of the Anti-Prohibition
movement is the Fully Informed Jury Association. FIJA, as
it's known, is based on the historic precedence of jurors
judging the laws, as well as the facts, in any "criminal" or
"common law" case. The jury judging laws is one of the
oldest and most important of all the "Checks and Balances" we
citizens have to prevent government from imposing
unreasonable and unjust sanctions upon us. A jury of one's
peers.
Our objectives are clear and outlined below:
* More citizens will learn about the power they have as
jurors to pass judgment on the laws of the land before
applying those laws to each other.
* More judges will stop lying to jurors and no longer
"instruct" jurors they must apply the law as the judge
dictates or judge "only the facts".
* There will be more acquittals and hung juries in
victimless crime trials as jurors refuse to enforce bad,
misapplied, confusing or unjust laws.
* More prosecutors will put greater effort and emphasis on
true crimes of intentional damage to property or injury to a
person. Fewer victimless crimes will be prosecuted.
Knowledge is power. Help us spread the knowledge of
the Fully Informed Jury. Please join us and restore
"government of, by and for the people". To get involved call
the PDX FIJA hotline, 291-7439.
END RELEASE
OK FOR RELEASE:
________________________________
Floyd Ferris Landrath - Director
American Anti-Prohibition League
AAL006.DOC
HISTORIC QUOTES & NOTES RELATED TO
THE FULLY INFORMED JURY
FIJA = Fully Informed Jury Association
"The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact
in controversy."
-- John Jay, 1st Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, 1789
"The jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both
law and fact."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1902
"The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is
to be decided."
-- Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, 1941
"The pages of history shine on instances of the jury's exercise
of its prerogative to disregard instructions of the judge..."
-- U.S. vs. Dougherty, 473 F 2nd 1113, 1139 (1972)
History Teaches How to Control Government
by Bill Vosburgh
Portland FIJA
If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, it is obvious we have not
paid the price. Government has become destructive of the very reason
for it's formation: to protect life, liberty and property.
The problems we are experiencing with government are not new or unique
to the late twentieth century. Anglo-Saxon history provides a steady
stream of examples and a solution. One of the earliest lessons comes
from merry old England.
While good King Richard the Lionheart was gone off on crusade to the
Holy Lands to win Jerusalem back from the Saracens, Richard's brother,
the evil Prince John, ruled England. Prince John teamed up with the
Lord High Sheriff of Nottingham to loot and oppress the people. They
were made famous in the tale of Robin Hood fighting tyranny in Sherwood
Forest.
When Richard died, evil Prince John became evil King John. John
betrayed everyone he had dealings with, kidnaped women and children,
imprisoned people or ordered them murdered on a whim, taxed his
citizens mercilessly, and even hired a foreign army to terrorize the
country in a bloody rampage of rape, robbery and destruction.
A group of Barons eventually confronted the king on a meadow at sword
point and forced him to agree to certain rights. At first, King John
refused to sign because the right to trial by jury gave the Barons
power to judge whether the king's laws were good or bad. King John
said then, what politicians, prosecutors and courts say today--that no
one had the right to oppose him. "The law is in my mouth," he said.
The law is whatever government says it is.
But the Barons knew that without the right to trial by jury, and the
power of jurors to refuse to enforce unjust laws, the Barons would
always be subject to oppression and tyranny from uncontrollable rulers.
The agreement was the Magna Carta or "great charter". Today, the right
to trial by jury is the right we hold most important out of 63 clauses
signed on June 15, 1215 at Runnymeade.
That right to trial by jury has been passed down through history for
more than 800 years in common law countries. If prosecutors and/or
courts could enforce laws, there would be no juries.
In 1670, 12 illiterate men in London refused to convict William Penn
for preaching a Quaker sermon in the street to his congregation locked
out of it's church. By law, the Church of England was the only legal
religion. The jurors were held for 4 days without food, water, tobacco
or toilet facilities. Four jurors were fined and imprisoned for 9
weeks for refusing to convict. On appeal, the highest court released
them and established that jurors could not be punished for their
verdicts.
Our rights to freedom of speech, religion and assembly can all be
traced back to that courageous jury over 300 years ago.
In the 1690s, the Salem Witch trials
transportation of alcohol. That amendment was repealed 14 years later
because juries refused to convict violators.
Acquittal of 1960s & '70s Vietnam draft resisters could have increased
pressure on government and shortened the war. However, juries were not
informed of their power to judge the law.
Juries too rarely exercise a power they are not aware they have. Fewer
do so with the campaign of silence, misinformation and intimidation by
the courts.
In the Declaration of Independence, our country's founders cited
"pretended offenses" and "pretended legislation" as grounds for
revolution against King George III. Out of fear for a repeat of such
oppressive laws in the future, the right to trial by jury was secured
four times in the Constitution. The founders relied on jurors always
understanding crime is simply intentional damage to property or injury
to a person. The power of juries to refuse to enforce bad, unjust,
confusing or misapplied laws had been well established.
Today, oppressive "laws" criminalize (sic) non-criminal behavior and
forfeiture squads steal from citizens. This is only possible because
95% of all "criminal" cases are "resolved" without jury trial in the
judicial system's infamous "plea bargain" process. Accused citizens
mistrust juries and juries are uninformed or misinformed about the
powers and duty entrusted to them.
Bill Vosburgh