I apologize, in advance, for the somewhat vague thread title, but this subject cannot be put into a few words.
A few weeks ago the governor of Illinois signed a bill making seat-belt violations a primary offense. IOW, the Man can now pull you over simply for not wearing a seat belt.
Three nights ago, as part of Illinois’ “Click It or Ticket” campaign, Springfield police issued some 40+ citations in a seat-belt sting on a busy street in town.
Needless to say, quite a few local citizens have taken umbrage with this. Two local talk-radio hosts are outraged beyond words. They have decided to fight this law with what they call the “Take Your Ticket and Stick It” campaign.
These radio hosts suggest that everyone who gets a seat belt ticket demand a jury trial. This way, the courts are clogged with paperwork AND extra costs as hordes of people fight being punished for a minor offense. Because of that, the police will stop enforcing this law or the legislature will repeal it.
Now, before we start debating and get this thread locked, let me state:
[ul]
[li]I’m not interested in fighting this law myself, as I always wear my seat belt. I’m merely curious if the radio hosts have a valid plan.[/li][li]Everyone knows that wearing your seat belt is one hundred bazillion times safer than not wearing it.[/li][li]Whether or not you feel that this law is unjust is irrelevant to the General Question here.[/li][li]Whether or not you feel that clogging the courts with extra paperwork is unethical is also irrelevant to the General Question here.[/li][li]I am not asking how to break the law; I’m only asking if this proposed method of fighting it will actually work.[/li][/ul]
So, CAN someone demand a jury trial for a traffic offense? If so, if all the people who are ticketed for seat belt violations demand jury trials, will the courts eventually give up?
I’m no expert on Illinois law, but I can put the Seventh Amendment thing to rest. It’s not applicable to criminal law, or to violations that don’t amount to crimes, a category in which many jurisdictions place seatbelt offenses.
And the $20 is not subject to cost-of-living adjustments.
The Seventh Amendment applies to civil cases, not criminal ones. The U.S. Sixth Amendment guarantees a jury trial for anyone accused of a non-petty offense – typically this means any crime for which the accused can, upon conviction, be sentenced to prison for more than six months.
According to 625 ILCS 5/12-603.1(d), as amended by this new law on July 3, 2003, this is classified as a “petty offense” the sentence for which is a fine of $25 (plus court costs). (Note that “petty offense” here does not have the same meaning as it does in the federal context.)
725 ILCS 5/103-6 states that a person accused of any offense has a right to a jury trial. (725 ILCS 5/102-15 and 730 ILCS 5/5-1-17 are definitions sections which make it pretty clear that a petty offense does count as an offense.) Therefore, unless there is some court precedent of which I am unaware, it does look like there is a statutory right to a jury trial for this offense. If the clogging of the jury begins to have some effect, however, the legislature can simply make an exception to the statutory right to a jury for this particular offense. I don’t see any reason in the Illinois or federal constitutions which would prevent this.
