Hi! Here's our post about Trial by Jury in Ancient Greece. Without this important legacy, many innocent people would be in jail!
In Ancient Greece anybody can make a charge against another, you just needed the jury to agree with you. To be on a jury you had to be a citizen over 30 years old, you had to promise to be fair to each side no matter what conditions. The jury members were selected from volunteers, they were not paid. The number of jurors could be huge; some trials have more than 500 jurors. Only the jury could decide if someone was guilty or innocent. A judge was at the trial only to keep order, he could not decide the fate of the accused. The complainant and the accused both presented their case and the jurors decided who was guilty, majority rules. When someone was found guilty, both side presented a punishment and the jury decided which punishment was appropriate. The jury could not make a third punishment. The idea of trial by jury was not invented by the Greeks but it was fine-tuned by them. Today we still use many of the Ancient Greeks ideas in court for the jury.
In Ancient Greece anybody can make a charge against another, you just needed the jury to agree with you. To be on a jury you had to be a citizen over 30 years old, you had to promise to be fair to each side no matter what conditions. The jury members were selected from volunteers, they were not paid. The number of jurors could be huge; some trials have more than 500 jurors. Only the jury could decide if someone was guilty or innocent. A judge was at the trial only to keep order, he could not decide the fate of the accused. The complainant and the accused both presented their case and the jurors decided who was guilty, majority rules. When someone was found guilty, both side presented a punishment and the jury decided which punishment was appropriate. The jury could not make a third punishment. The idea of trial by jury was not invented by the Greeks but it was fine-tuned by them. Today we still use many of the Ancient Greeks ideas in court for the jury.
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