State v. Mercier

This respondent, who was convicted in the Burlington city court of the illegal possession of intoxicating liquor, says that his conviction should be set aside because he was denied the full benefit of his constitutional right to a trial by jury.

While the right to a trial before an impartial jury is guaranteed by the organic law (Const. Vt. Ch. I, Art. 10), and while this right is to be held sacred, (Ibid, Art. 12), and is to be given effect according to the course of the common law (Plimpton v. Somerset, 33 Vt. 283), it does not follow that no change in the procedural requirements by which…