When was the peter zenger trial

Through instructions to his wife, Zenger would continue publishing his paper during the eight months that he awaited trial in jail. At the time, English common law, which had been transported to the colonies, provided that truth was no defense to an accusation of seditious libel; indeed, truthful information could be even more dangerous than lies, because it was more believable.

Calling essentially for the exercise of what today would be considered jury nullification, in the case of New York v. John Peter Zenger Hamilton urged jurors to strike down this law as unjust. The importance of the case is that it established the principle, now firmly embedded in U.

Alexander Hamilton used this argument in the case of People v. Croswell N. The concept was later incorporated into the law of New York and other states. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. This article was originally published in Alexander, James.

Stanley N. Cambridge, Mass. Bogen, David S. Braniff, Andrew. David Schultz and John R. During the jury proceedings, the two attorneys who published the Weekly Journal were disbarred by the court when they tried to represent Zenger. In their place, Zenger was assigned a pro-Cosby public attorney, John Chambers. At first, Chambers entered a not guilty plea for Zenger, challenging the colonial Attorney General to prove a standard of libel. He started off by admitting that Zenger printed the statements, but that the crown had an obligation to prove they were false statements.

The tactic blocked the Attorney General from making a counter-argument, and then Hamilton appealed directly to the jury. It is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. Alexander and Smith searched for the most experienced trial attorney in the colonies and selected a man by the name Andrew Hamilton.

A resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was no relation to Alexander Hamilton and was born in Scotland in Hamilton was the Attorney General of Pennsylvania from through and became Recorder of Philadelphia in Later, he would go on to become the Speaker of the Assembly from to After John Peter Zenger had languished in jail for an entire year, his trial began on August 4, inside a small court room in the New York City Hall.

The Attorney General opened the case, saying that the defendant had pleaded not guilty to printing and publishing a false, scandalous, and seditious libel against Governor Cosby.

Chief Justice DeLancey then said to the jury, "The laws in my opinion are very clear; they cannot be admitted to justify a libel.