One of our professors has asked if we can determine why/how "twelve"
became the standard number of members in a jury.
Has anyone else researched this question?
I checked "The Guide to American Law: Everyone's Legal Encyclopedia"...
no help. The _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ indicates that the jury has twelve
members by "tradition" in common law. In _Words and Phrases. Permanent ed.
1658 to date_, there are many cited cases affirming that 12 is the standard
number, but no explanation as to its origin. In one secondary source,
_Twelve Good Men and True: The Criminal Trial Jury in England, 1200-1800_,
chapter 1 has a reference to King Henry II who ordained in the Assize of
Clarendon that "twelve lawful men of each hundred, and four of each vill,
should report to the royal justices or sheriffs those persons reputed to
have committed certain serious crimes," and the latter were then tried by
ordeal. (A hundred was a neighborhood or a division of a county; a vill was
a division of a hundred.)
Can anyone else offer any help? Or clues of other places to look?
Please respond directly to me. Thanks.
-- Alva
____________________________________________________________________
Alva T. Stone
Law Library Internet: atstone@law.fsu.edu
Florida State University fax: 904-644-5216
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1043 tel: 904-644-2881
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