History of the Jury

The right to a trial by jury in the United States can be traced back to English common law and the Magna Carta of 1215. Juries were created to ensure that trials would be decided by the people, and not the government. Implicit in this right was the jury's power to decide the facts of a case, the law of a case, and to decide whether or not to enforce a law based upon its own sense of justice.  Perhaps the most famous example of the jury's power in Colonial America was the John Peter Zenger trial, although this case is more frequently cited in affirming "free press" and "free speech rights." Zenger was accused of "seditious libel" for publishing material that embarrassed the Governor of New York. On August 5, 1735, twelve  jurors ignored the instructions of the Governor's hand-picked judges and returned a verdict of "not guilty" on the charges. 

Since then, our nation has repeatedly affirmed the virtually unlimited power of the jury as the last bastion of the people against government tyranny.  In the words of John Adams, "It is not only his right, but his duty...to find the verdict according to his best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court."

Thomas Jefferson considered trial by jury "the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."

The United States Supreme Court has frequently recognized the right of a jury " to bring a verdict in the teeth of both the law and facts." Oliver Wendell Holmes, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Horning v. District of Columbia, 138 (1920).

Nevertheless, recent court decisions on both the State and federal levels seem to be watering down this right, or at least permitting judges to mislead jurors with regard to their powers. 

To learn more about these issues, visit the Fully Informed Jury Association's website.

Impartial Jury

In theory, all U.S. citizens accused of a crime are entitled to an impartial jury. In practice, there is no way to be certain that an individual juror is impartial. In most jurisdictions, the attorneys have some input as to the choice of individual jurors, although the trend is toward allowing the judge to select the jury. In New York, individual lawyers still select the jury. Federal case law prohibits the exclusion of jurors solely on the basis of race.