Vol. 30, No. 2 #7 (April 2007). The Historic and Cultural Roots of Wyoming's Right to a Jury Trial.

• Author: By Frederick J. Harrison

Wyoming Bar Journal

2007.

Vol. 30, No. 2 #7 (April 2007).

The Historic and Cultural Roots of Wyoming's Right to a Jury Trial

WYOMING LAWYER Vol. 30, No. 2 (April 2007) The Historic and Cultural Roots of Wyoming's Right to a Jury Trial By Frederick J. Harrison

It is impossible to separate the right of a Wyoming citizen to jury trial from the history of Western culture and civilization. Recognizable forms of jury trial existed in ancient Greece and Rome and are precursors to the modern right existing in all American states, including Wyoming. There are extensive writings containing the jury orations of ancient lawyers, such as Cicero, addressing juries (while timed by water clocks) in the Roman forum. With the decline of the Roman Empire, trial by jury ended in Europe and was largely replaced with substitutes, such as andquot;trial by ordeal,andquot; andquot;trial by combat,andquot; the most destructive of all bloody feuds and melees resulting in the total disruption of social order. In contravention of these brutal forms of conflict resolution, there arose a medieval revival of the jury trial in various places where order began to prevail. Ancient Danes settling in England formed committees of twelve hereditary andquot;law menandquot; to administer justice. Later King Henry II began the English practice of having juries decide land disputes and began also the use of the grand jury as the entity charging individuals with crime. When Catholic clergy declared in cases of andquot;trial by ordealandquot; and andquot;trial by combatandquot; that clergy would no longer be present to administer the last rights to participants in violent means of conflict resolution, there was a consequent increase in the more peaceful trial by jury.

In 1215 A.D. trial by jury became an explicit right enshrined in the first English document restricting the right of a King to take properties from or otherwise punish a free man. The Magna Carta provided that the King could not withhold the right to jury trial from freemen that stood to lose property or life. According to scholars, the Magna Carta established an early form of due process of law, which in those times meant a trial by twelve peers of a freeman.

By the time of the American Revolutionary War, the grand jury, criminal petit jury and the civil petit jury were firmly established rights of all Englishmen. Americans as heirs of the English common law included as a...