Probably the best mode of appointing jurors would be this: Let the
names of all the adult [male] [9] members of the state, in each
township, be kept in a jury box, by the officers of the township;
and when a court is to be held for a county or other district, let
the officers of a sufficient number of townships be required
(without seeing the names) to draw out a name from their boxes
respectively, to be returned to the court as a juror. This mode of
appointment would guard against collusion and selection; and
juries so appointed would be likely to be a fair epitome of "the
country."
[1]On the English Constitution.
[2] Although all the freemen are legally eligible as jurors, any
one may nevertheless be challenged and set aside, at the trial,
for any special personal disqualification; such as mental or
physical inability to perform the duties; having been convicted,
or being under charge, of crime; interest, bias, &c;. But it is
clear that the common law allows none of these points to be
determined by the court, but only by "triers."
[3] What was the precise meaning of the Saxon word, which I have
here called elderly, I do not know. In the Latin translations it
is rendered by seniores, which may perhaps mean simply those
who have attained their majority.
[4] In 1485 it was enacted, by a statute entitled " Of what credit
and estate those jurors must be which shall be impaneled in the
Sheriff's Turn."
"That no bailiff nor other officer from henceforth return or
impanel any such person in any shire of England, to be taken or
put in or upon any inquiry in any of the said Turns, but such as
be of good name and fame, and having lands and tenements of
freehold within the same shires, to the yearly value of twenty
shillings at the least, or else lands and tenements holden by
custom of manor, commonly called copy-hold, within the said
shires, to the yearly value of twenty-six shillings eight pence
over all charges at the least." 1 Richard III., ch. 4. (1483 )
In 1486 it was enacted, " That the justices of the peace of every
shire of this realm for the time being may take, by their
discretion, an inquest, whereof every man shall have lands and
tenements to the yearly value of forty shillings at the least, to
inquire of the concealments of others," &c;., &c;. 3 Henry VII,
ch. 1. (1486.)
A statute passed in 1494, in regard to jurors in the city of
London, enacts:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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