Steve Corich Police Officer

Mesa Police Officers Jason Behnke and Aaron Spicer respond to lawsuit

The Arizona Constitution says all existing laws before the Arizona Constitution was created are still in effect until they expire or are repealed. Ricky corrected me on this and said that RIGHT’s can’t expire or be repealed. This is covered in Article 22 Sections 1 & 2. Article 22 Sections 1 says RIGHT’s can’t be changed.

1. Existing rights, actions, suits, proceedings, contracts, claims, or demands; process
Section 1. No rights, actions, suits, proceedings, contracts, claims, or demands, existing at the time of the admission of this State into the Union, shall be affected by a change in the form of government, from Territorial to State, but all shall continue as if no change had taken place; and all process which may have been issued under the authority of the Territory of Arizona, previous to its admission into the Union, shall be as valid as if issued in the name of the State.

Article 22 Sections 2 says that the laws existing prior to the Arizona Constitution will continue to be in effect until they are repealed or expire.

2. Territorial laws
Section 2. All laws of the Territory of Arizona now in force, not repugnant to this Constitution, shall remain in force as laws of the State of Arizona until they expire by their own limitations or are altered or repealed by law; Provided, that wherever the word Territory, meaning the Territory of Arizona, appears in said laws, the word State shall be substituted.

So remember all existing “right’s” before the constitution was created can’t be changed or taken away from us and last forever.

Of course this leads up to this. Chapter 1, Article 16 of the Arizona Territorial Statutes of 1901 (A.R.S) says

“The Jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact”

Which means a judge can’t throw my case out because a lawyer for the defendants says the law does not apply to his client. Only a jury can throw the case out because the territorial law gives juries the “right to determine the law and the fact”

Now I don’t think it applies here but Ricky gets into Article 6 Section 27 of the Arizona Constitution which is gets into the fully informed jury stuff. It says:

27. Charge to juries; reversal of causes for technical error
Section 27. Judges shall not charge juries with respect to matters of fact, nor comment thereon, but shall declare the law. No cause shall be reversed for technical error in pleadings or proceedings when upon the whole case it shall appear that substantial justice has been done.

Now Ricky says this part “Judges shall not charge juries with respect to matters of fact, nor comment thereon, but shall declare the law” says that judges shall tell the juries the law. But Ricky goes on to say that the juries get to determine both the law in the fact. I know I have seen that in the Arizona Constitution and I will have to trace it down. That is because it is one of the basis’s of the Fully Informed Jury concept.