State v. Stanton

The right to trial by jury is an ancient and revered right, a right embodied in our State Constitution before there was a Federal Constitution, a right as old as the Magna Carta.3 That right -has been devised to us through the ages and finds its home in our *111current New Jersey Constitution, which guarantees that the “right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate.” N.J. Const, art. I, ¶ 9. The majority opinion strikes a blow to that right by diminishing the role and importance of the jury in our system of criminal justice and by ceding from the jury to the judge the relevant fact-finding power…