Sterngard Friegen wrote:
Doesn't sound like it was a jury trial. The cRapsters were wrong again.
This "trial" and its "jury decision" is a core belief not only of many cRapsters but also of a larger movement, Sovereign Citizens and tax protesters.
An account of the proceedings from an unheated storage room of a general store in Credit River, Minnesota includes the Judgment and Decree, from which "Justice Mahoney is quoted more often than any Supreme Court justice ever was." Mahoney found for the defendant, the tax protester attorney Jerome Daly:
Quote:
The above entitled action came on before the Court and a Jury of 12 on December 7, 1968 at 10:00 am. Plaintiff appeared by its President Lawrence V. Morgan and was represented by its Counsel, R. Mellby. Defendant appeared on his own behalf {in a "Common Law action for the recovery of the possession of Lot 19 Fairview Beach, Scott County, Minn."}
A Jury of Talesmen were called, impaneled and sworn to try the issues in the Case. Lawrence V. Morgan was the only witness called for Plaintiff and Defendant testified as the only witness in his own behalf.
...
At 12:15 on December 7, 1968 the Jury returned a unanimous verdict for the Defendant.
Now therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me pursuant to the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Constitution of United States and the Constitution and the laws of the State of Minnesota not inconsistent therewith ;
Besides returning possession of Lot 19 Fairview Beach to Jerome Daly, Mahoney also ruled:
Quote:
5.That any provision in the Minnesota Constitution and any Minnesota Statute binding the jurisdiction of this Court is repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and to the Bill of Rights of the Minnesota Constitution and is null and void and that this Court has jurisdiction to render complete Justice in this Cause.
Since Mahoney died six months later in a fishing boat accident ("was poisoned"), his decision "was never legally overturned, nor can it be."