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Delegate Grant, do I understand that
what you would want to do would be to
include section B with the addition that
you have proposed in your Amendment AJ ?
DELEGATE GRANT: That is correct.
THE CHAIRMAN: You may do that by
preparing an amendment to include the
new section containing the language you
want without a reconsideration of the vote
by which Amendment No. 12 is adopted.
If you will have the proper amendment
prepared the Chair will submit it.
DELEGATE GRANT: Mr. Chairman, I
would rather not delay the work of this
Committee in consideration of this section.
THE CHAIRMAN: We can come back to
this section. The form of your amendment
is improper in either event. It will have to
be redone.
DELEGATE GRANT: I will prepare it
again, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: If you will get a page
to get Mr. Benson to come to your desk,
he can fix it for you very quickly.
Are there any other amendments to any
portion of section 5?
Delegate Henderson.
DELEGATE HENDERSON: The Amend-
ment AF is now prepared and on the desk.
I would like to have it distributed, please.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Henderson,
does the Chair understand that you propose
to offer Amendments AF and AG in that
order ?
DELEGATE HENDERSON: I should
prefer if I could do it to offer AH as an
amendment to section 7 and then come back
to AG, because I think that is the order in
which the matters can best be disposed of.
THE CHAIRMAN: Since we have passed
over the pending amendment, we can do
that when we come back and reach section
7 in due course.
DELEGATE ANDERSON: Mr. Chair-
man.
T,HE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Anderson.
DELEGATE ANDERSON: I would like
to take up AF first, and then AH and then
AG, although they are not all to the same
section.
THE CHAIRMAN: I do not believe we
can do it that way.
DELEGATE ANDERSON: Very Well.
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THE CHAIRMAN: We can take AH and
then come back to AG and then come back
to AH.
DELEGATE ANDERSON: All right. We
will take up AF.
THE CHAIRMAN: In the course of AF
you can indicate your purpose with respect
to AH.
Pages please distribute amendment AF.
This will be Amendment No. 13. The
Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 13
to Committee Recommendation No. R&P-1
by Delegates James, J. Clark, Henderson,
and Scanlan:
On page 3, section 5, Rights of Accused,
on line 11 strike out the word "unanimous ";
and in line 12 strike out the period and
insert in lieu thereof the following words:
"provided that the General Assembly may
authorize majority verdicts of not less than
ten in non-capital cases."
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment has
been submitted by Delegate Henderson and
it is seconded by Delegates James, J. Clark
and Scanlan.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Henderson
to speak to the amendment.
DELEGATE HENDERSON: Mr. Chair-
man and fellow delegates, this was a mat-
ter that was debated rather extensively
yesterday and I do not want to take any
longer than is necessary to bring you up to
date on the matter.
The proposal, this section 5 (A), deals
with the right to a trial by an impartial
jury and then the original amendment went
on to say "of 12 and without unanimous
consent he shall not be adjudged guilty".
This amendment strikes out "unanimous"
and provides the additional, "provided that
the General Assembly may authorize ma-
jority verdicts of not less than ten in non-
capital cases."
This was the provision which was dis-
cussed at some length yesterday, and I do
not want to dwell on it.
As was pointed out, England and a great
many of the states in this country, provide
for less than a unanimous verdict. That
seems to be a tendency that seems to be
growing. In one way or another, the matter
has been modified. This excludes capital
cases but permits a less than unanimous
verdict in other criminal cases.
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