Pratt v. St. Christopher's Hospital

The citizen jury is the bedrock upon which the edifice of the American System of Justice is constructed. Thomas Jefferson, its chief proponent, described the jury system as “the only anchor, ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.” 15 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 269 (1958). Justice Scalia, in Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, -, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 2539, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), noted: *543For this reason, a jury verdict is sacrosanct and the process is inviolable. From colonial times, the Pennsylvania Constitution guaranteed the right to a…