Of course, the hearing before the jury is held in court. The judge presides. He directs the proceedings of the trial, sees that it is conducted in an orderly way, endeavors to prevent any falsehoods from getting before the jury, keeps away from the jury any hearsay or gossip, or expressions of prejudice, or other matters not founded on absolute knowledge and truth. But the jurors are the sole judges of what the truth is, and, when the case is closed, when the evidence has all been introduced and the attorneys have made their arguments and pleas, the members of the jury retire to a private room by themselves. There they discuss the evidence, come to some conclusion, make a finding of "guilty" or "not guilty", and bring in their finding in the form of a verdict.
Have you also observed that the constitutional protection of your liberty not only provides for a jury trial, but also provides that it shall be a "speedy" trial. That is, one charged with a crime cannot without his consent, be locked up for weeks and months and years, as has often occurred in other parts of the world. He is entitled to be tried just as soon as the case can be prepared for trial, in justice to both sides. Cases are often postponed for many months, but only by consent of the accused. A case not tried at the second term of court will usually be dismissed except when the defendant consents to the delay.
The Constitution also provides that it must be a public trial. Oh! how many men in the long ago have been tried and condemned in private, where only a few enemies were present, where one's friends and neighbors could not hear the charges or the evidence. In this country the doors of the court room must be open. Any one has a right to enter and listen to the proceedings. The public has a right to know what is being charged against the humblest citizen, and what the proceedings against him are. Thus is justice guarded.
Then the Constitution provides that the trial shall be before "_an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed_." This is important. We are not to be sent away among strangers to be tried. That is what they used to do long ago. That is one of the things which our forefathers complained of most bitterly. In the Declaration of Independence the colonies declared: