Sparf v. United States

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Sparf v. United States

Submitted March 5, 1894
Decided January 21, 1895

Full case name:	Sparf and Hansen v. United States

Citations:	156 U.S. 51; 15 S. Ct. 273; 39 L. Ed. 343; 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2120

Prior history:	Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of California

Holding

Court membership

Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
Associate Justices: Stephen Johnson Field, John Marshall Harlan, Horace Gray, David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown, George Shiras, Jr., Howell Edmunds Jackson, Edward Douglass White

Case opinions

Majority by: Harlan
Joined by: Fuller, Field, White
Concurrence by: Jackson
Dissent by: Brewer
Joined by: Brown
Dissent by: Gray
Joined by: Shiras

Sparf v. United States, 156 U.S. 51 (1895)^[1], was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that federal judges were not required to inform jurors of their full rights and powers to judge both the facts as well as the law in bringing a general verdict. The decision was rendered by a five to four judge margin, with two strong dissenting opinions.

[edit] See also

List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 156
Jury nullification (Here the US argues that "Sparf & Hansen v. United States [...] is still universally regarded as the decisive case disapproving of jury nullification."