"In We the Jury ... veteran jury watcher and historian Godfrey D. Lehman demonstrates the validity of the American constitutional republic, in which the people hold sovereign power and express their will more effectively by delivering verdicts of conscience than by voting. The jury, when it is independent, nullifies unjust laws, topples kings and, as a representative of the governed, holds the governors in thrall to its consent. The jury is Abraham Lincoln's "government of, by, and for the people" in operation." "Lehman looks at twelve historical examples from both Europe and America ranging over four centuries, which include cases involving freedom of the press and of assembly, freedom of religion, women's and minority rights, voting rights, and much more. Here are stories not only of the famous, but also of the often nameless jurors who were the true heroes, as they stood on the side of liberty, even when tyrannical courts or governments tried to cow them with threats, reprisals, physical torture, and imprisonment. By exercising their power over government known as jury nullification, the sovereign people were able to call politicians to account and even to rewrite the law."--BOOK JACKET.