The Jury's Defiant Verdict
A Port Townsend courtroom is stunned when a jury ignores the judge's instructions and acquits a defendant, leading to an immediate judicial rebuke.
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In the ongoing trial of Richard Keort for assaulting Captain Phelan, the lobbies of the courthouse remained thronged with people. The jury having made known that an agreement had been reached, were brought into the court and asked what their verdict was. 'Not guilty,' answered the foreman. Phelan's friends set up a tremendous cheer, but were quickly quieted by the officers. The Judge frowned in indignation and amazement at the verdict, and said, 'Gentlemen, I am astonished at your verdict. You are discharged from all further service on this panel.' 'I move for the discharge of the prisoner,' said counsellor Brook. 'Granted,' said the Court, in a manner that seemed to show that his honor was anxious to get rid of such extraordinary business.
“The Judge frowned in indignation and amazement at the verdict, and said, 'Gentlemen, I am astonished at your verdict.'”
While legal standards have shifted, the tension between a jury's 'common sense' justice and a judge's rigid application of the law remains a fundamental—and often controversial—aspect of the American legal system. Today, public distrust in institutional authority continues to echo the defiant sentiment seen in this 1885 courtroom.
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