Give juries final say

Spencer Robinson (Readers' Forum, Jan. 4) really has things upside down; his hypothetical defendant could always ask for a non-jury trial. Not only should juries have the final say, but they should have it as to the law as well as to the facts. The Founding Fathers considered juries a cornerstone of justice, a constitutional protection against lawyers, judges and legalized corruption. That juries should be 12 stooges required to adhere to every utterance of black-robed lawyers is a relatively recent phenomenon in the judicial march to power.

There probably has not been a trial by citizen peers in the last 50 years. Legal distortions and technical games extend trials ad nauseam until most won't even show up for selection; juries have almost been destroyed by voir dire and the peremptory challenge.

Who can remember when 12 everyday Americans were last seated on a jury panel?

Paul Sharp

Salt Lake City