"My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot: for I owe my conscience to no mortal man." - William Penn
Did you know (or remember) that William Penn was put on trial? Most recall that he was a Quaker, but many may not recall that he was put on trial in England. Here's what Wikipedia says about the 1670 trial:
Among the most famous of these was the trial following his 1670 arrest with William Meade. Penn was accused of preaching before a gathering in the street, which Penn had deliberately provoked in order to test the validity of the new law against assembly. Penn pleaded for his right to see a copy of the charges laid against him and the laws he had supposedly broken, but the judge (the Lord Mayor of London) refused – even though this right was guaranteed by the law. Furthermore, the judge directed the jury to come to a verdict without hearing the defence.[51]
Why was this trial so important? It gave the absolute right of juries to give their verdict based upon their own convictions. As you can see from the brief play by play, the judge (and a ton of court staff looking for promotions) tried every angle to get a conviction. The bailiff would not let the jury go home and refused them any food or drink in the hopes of coercing a guilty verdict. Penn was all of 25 years old when this occurred. The Quakers, at the time, were frowned upon as the established religion in England was the Church of England. The trial has all sorts of great quotes and juicy arguments (i.e. Penn said at one moment, "If the common law is so hard to understand, than it was far from being common.").Despite heavy pressure from the Lord Mayor to convict Penn, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty". When invited by the judge to reconsider their verdict and to select a new foreman, they refused and were sent to a cell over several nights to mull over their decision. The Lord Mayor then told the jury, "You shall go together and bring in another verdict, or you shall starve", and not only had Penn sent to jail in loathsome Newgate Prison (on a charge of contempt of court), but the full jury followed him, and they were additionally fined the equivalent of a year’s wages each.[52][53] The members of the jury, fighting their case from prison in what became known as Bushel's Case, managed to win the right for all English juries to be free from the control of judges.[54] This case was one of the more important trials that shaped the future concept of American freedom (see jury nullification)[55] and was a victory for the use of the writ of habeas corpusas a means of freeing those unlawfully detained.