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Lynn Schmidt is a columnist and editorial board member of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
To borrow from the song written by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets, “I Fought the Law,” former President Donald Trump fought the law and the law won.
With the law winning, the very system that our country was founded upon triumphed. The problem is that partisans won’t stop fighting against the rules of that law.
The bedrock of our constitutional republic is rule of law. The rule of law is not about a single verdict; rather, it is the process that occurs before, during and after that judgment.
While individuals may disagree with the jury’s verdict in Trump’s hush-money trial, it is imperative that we value the 12 New Yorkers who stood as the pillars to our democracy, and we should all be grateful for their service.
The New York State Unified Court System “Petit Juror’s Handbook” begins with the following passage:
“On behalf of New York State’s Unified Court System, I extend our thanks that you are here today for jury service. The right to trial by jury is essential to the ability of courts to provide equal justice to all those who enter through our doors, which depends on your service as jurors. It is both an awesome responsibility and a great privilege to serve as a juror: it directly calls on you, as members of our society, to help resolve disputes by determining the truth so that our courts can produce just results.”
Once the jury is selected, each juror takes an oath and pledges to act fairly and impartially and follow the law that is explained by the judge.
The unanimous jury composed of five women and seven men found the former president guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal ahead of his 2016 campaign for the White House.
Americans have no justification to suspect that those 12 men and women did anything other than what they were selected to do. For partisan Republicans to suggest otherwise damages the justice system’s authority.
While the charges that were brought against Trump may have been politically motivated, the procedure in which he was adjudicated was not.
Trump was a private citizen when the crimes were committed. A grand jury determined that there was an adequate basis for bringing criminal charges against Trump and he was indicted.
Trump had an adequate defense team, and a jury of his peers convicted him in 10 hours. This is exactly how the system should and did work.
But of course following the verdict, Republicans began attacking the justice system itself, calling the trial “rigged” and insulting both the judge and the jury as being biased.
While there are too many examples of Republicans bashing the system to cite here, there is one that stood out to me as the epitome of what is wrong with our current political culture:
Former Maryland governor and current senatorial candidate Republican Larry Hogan told voters to “respect the verdict” before it was announced.
Senior Trump adviser Chris LaCivita responded almost immediately on X, “You just ended your campaign.”
I have written in the past about my experience serving as a juror on a murder trial. Admittedly, the charges in the case were different from Trump’s trial and the defendant was definitely not a former president.
That said, I took my obligation as a juror very seriously and felt a great responsibility for my deliberations. The other 11 in the room with me did as well. We worked hard, listening to one another, and reviewing and discussing the evidence until we confidently reached a unanimous verdict.
I have no doubt that the jurors in Trump’s trial also understood the gravity of the situation in front of them while assessing the evidence presented to them.
The Magna Carta, written in 1215, had a strong influence on America’s Founding Fathers as they wrote the Constitution. Article 39 of the Magna Carta reads: “No freemen shall be taken or imprisoned or … exiled or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him nor send upon him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
This is our arrangement and to love our country is to accept verdicts as legitimate. The verdict in this case is authentic because a lawful judgment was reached by Trump’s peers.
Of course, people are free to dislike the outcome and to express that displeasure vocally. This very same structure protects them, too. That is the beauty of it all.
The foundation of America’s democracy has proven itself again, in part because it has been held up on the backs of 12 ordinary citizens. The politics will play itself out in November.
