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Constitutional Law-Trial By Jury-Conditions Of Valid Waiver

Michigan Law Review

Until the rendition of the Supreme Court's lengthy opinion in Patton v. United States the consequence of a defendant's waiver of his constitutional right to trial by jury in criminal cases, and his resultant trial without a jury of twelve persons, was matter for vigorous disputation. The decisions from various jurisdictions are conflicting and confused. Some courts have declared flatly that the right cannot be validly waived and that conviction following an attempted waiver is a nullity. But their reasons for so holding are widely variant.