Ford Motor Credit Co. v. Amodt

For all our reverence for the jury system, we must not be blind to the fact that a jury is but 12 human beings possessed of all the foibles and flaws of mortal men. Shakespeare touched on this in Measure for Measure (Act 2, Scene 1) :

“The jury, passing on the prisoner’s life, May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try.”

Abraham Lincoln in a letter dated June 12, 1863, to Erastus Corning wrote:

“A jury too frequently has at least one member more ready to hang the panel than to hang the traitor.”

Wisconsin has heretofore preserved a major exception to the general rule…