Essay On Jury System

945 Words2 Pages

History of the Jury Juries are legal systems that have been used for over a thousand years. At the beginning juries were only used to provide local knowledge and information, and instead they acted more as a witness than decision makers. As time went on, in the fifteenth century, juries were independent assessors which they also assumed their modern role as deciders of fact. When the jury became a jury system, its origins was brought over by England, which was when the pilgrims in 1920 established a jury system in the New World. When the pilgrims arrived in the New World, after three years they codified the colony’s laws. December 17, 1623, the colony officials said “that all criminal facts, and also matters of trespasse and debts between man and man should be tried by the verdict of twelve honest men to be impaneled by authority …show more content…

They also have to be registered to vote, which means as a parliamentary or local government elector. There are disqualifications too, for example you cannot be mentally disordered or be disqualified from jury service. Before these qualifications you needed a property qualification to be a juror. Meaning, you had to be the owner or tenant of a dwelling. Usually women and young people were less likely to own or even rent property which meaning they couldn’t serve on a jury trial. Jury system qualifications and composition have changed over the years in the United States. In the beginning they were only used to provide local knowledge and information, while today they have become more complex. To creating different courts, such as, crown court, high courts, and county courts. To letting citizens of the United States participate and serve on a jury trial has changed dramatically since the fifteenth century. Since the days of the Pilgrims, jury service today remains one of the cornerstones of our system of

Open Document