petit jury

petit jury, a group chosen from the citizens of a district to try a question of fact. Distinct from the grand jury, which formulates accusations, the petit jury tests the accuracy of such accusations by standards of proof.

Generally, the petit jury’s function is to deliberate questions of fact, with questions of law left to the trial judge. However, the distinction often is blurred. The petit jury has less discretion than is often imagined. The trial judge supervises it, rules on what evidence it may view and on what laws are applicable, and sometimes directs its verdict. If the judge deems that the jury has grossly ignored the weight of the evidence, the judge can set aside (i.e., overrule) the jury’s verdict.

Although petit juries in England and the United States historically have contained 12 members, there is no uniform number. Numerical requirements for a valid verdict vary (e.g., unanimity in most courts in the United States, a majority in Scotland and Italy, two-thirds in Portugal), as do subject areas of operation. For example, in the United States in some states juvenile defendants may not request a jury, and in England juries have been eliminated from civil cases. Outside the United States the petit jury is declining. In countries with a civil- rather than common-law tradition, the jury, where found, is used only for criminal trials. Germany and France have a mixed tribunal of judges and jurors in criminal cases, and Japan abolished its petit jury in 1943 after a brief experimental period for civil cases.

Scholars disagree on the time and place of the trial jury’s birth. Some suggest that King Alfred the Great of England initiated the institution in the 9th century. Others trace it to the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century. The petit jury emerged as a distinct form when the Articles of Visitation in England (1194) separated accusatory and trial juries—the grand and petit juries of today.

In England the petit jury is obsolete in civil cases other than defamation claims. In England and the United States a jury trial in both criminal and civil cases garners wide public support. Proponents argue that the trial jury is a bulwark against tyranny, being drawn from the populace at large. Detractors insist the system is inconvenient and clumsy and that modern legal complexities are beyond the competence of most petit jurors. See also voir dire.