JURY - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

JURYAuthored

The Law Mind • 1616 words

Definition

A jury is a body of persons selected and sworn according to law to hear evidence presented in a legal proceeding and render a verdict or finding of fact. Two primary forms exist in American law:

1. PETIT JURY (trial jury): A group of citizens — traditionally twelve in number — summoned and empaneled to hear evidence at trial and return a verdict resolving a civil dispute or determining guilt or innocence in a criminal case. The verdict must ordinarily be unanimous in criminal proceedings under the common law rule, though modern civil procedures and some jurisdictions permit non-unanimous verdicts.

2. GRAND JURY: A larger body — traditionally between twelve and twenty-three members — convened not to determine guilt but to evaluate whether the government's evidence is sufficient to charge an accused with a crime. A grand jury's finding takes the form of an indictment (true bill) or a refusal to indict (no bill). Grand juries also possess investigative powers independent of any pending prosecution.

The constitutional status of jury trial is significant: in federal criminal prosecutions, the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to trial by jury; the Fifth Amendment requires grand jury indictment for serious federal offenses. Incorporation of the jury trial right to the states has been extended through the Fourteenth Amendment, though the grand jury indictment requirement has not been incorporated.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A group of individuals chosen from the general population to hear and decide a case in a court of law; also, a group of judges in a competition, or an audience whose reaction determines a performance's success.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The 1913 Webster's entry for "jury" as a standalone noun is absent — the dictionary records the word primarily as an adjective meaning temporary or makeshift, as in "jury mast" (a temporary mast rigged after one is lost at sea) or "jury rudder."
The Webster's 1913 gap is itself informative. The legal institution was so well established by 1913 that the common dictionary focused on the rarer adjectival usage while leaving the legal noun to legal dictionaries. Today, the competition-panel meaning (a jury of peers judging an art contest, a film festival, etc.) reflects genuine parallel development from the core legal concept of peers assembled to evaluate and decide.

Common Confusion

GRAND JURY VS. PETIT JURY
The grand jury and the petit (trial) jury share a name and a selection pool but serve entirely different functions. The grand jury evaluates prosecutorial evidence in secret proceedings before any trial occurs; witnesses before it lack many trial protections, and no defense is presented. The petit jury hears both sides at an adversarial public trial and renders the verdict. Conflating the two leads to serious errors in analyzing Fifth and Sixth Amendment doctrine, indictment requirements, and the significance of a "jury finding" in constitutional law.

Core Elements

Constitutional jury trial (criminal, Sixth Amendment) requires:
— A qualified pool drawn from a fair cross-section of the community
— Impartial jurors (no disqualifying bias)
— A sufficient number (twelve at common law; the Supreme Court has approved six-person juries in non-capital cases, but five is constitutionally insufficient)
— Unanimity for federal criminal convictions; the Court's doctrine on state criminal unanimity has evolved, with Ramos v. Louisiana (2020) extending the unanimity requirement to state felony prosecutions

Grand jury indictment (federal, Fifth Amendment) requires:
— A body of not fewer than sixteen nor more than twenty-three members
— A quorum of sixteen to conduct business
— A concurrence of twelve to return an indictment
— Secrecy of proceedings

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES
COMMON JURY: A jury drawn in the ordinary manner from the venire, without special qualification beyond the general statutory requirements.
GRAND JURY: The larger indicting or investigating body described above.
SPECIAL JURY (struck jury): A jury selected by a more rigorous process, historically used in cases involving complex commercial matters or questions of particular public importance. The parties or the court struck names from a larger panel until the requisite number remained.
JURY DE MEDIETATE LINGUÆ: A historically recognized form composed half of aliens and half of citizens, available to foreign parties under early English practice (28 Edw. III). This form was abolished in England in 1870 and was never uniformly adopted in American jurisdictions.
CORONER'S JURY: A body convened to inquire into the cause of a death occurring under circumstances suggesting violence or unknown cause. Its finding is not a criminal verdict but an inquisition that may prompt further proceedings.
HUNG JURY: A jury unable to reach the required unanimity (or supermajority, where applicable) after deliberation, resulting in a mistrial. A hung jury does not constitute an acquittal and does not bar retrial under double jeopardy principles.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus encounter jury as one of the most procedurally loaded terms in Anglo-American law, and several navigational issues are significant.

First, the twelve-person rule: historical sources treat twelve jurors as definitional — the number is not incidental but constitutive of what a "jury" means. Bouvier notes that the term "jury" in a constitution "imports, ex vi termini, twelve men," citing multiple state authorities. Modern constitutional doctrine has departed from this position for non-capital cases. When reading historical materials on constitutional jury guarantees, researchers must track which cases involve capital, felony, or civil proceedings, because the twelve-person requirement was not applied uniformly even at common law.

Second, unanimity: historical sources assume unanimity without stating it, because the rule was so settled it required no elaboration. Modern researchers encountering historical jury discussions that are silent on the unanimity question should not treat that silence as flexibility — it reflects the opposite.

Third, the grand jury as investigative body: historical dictionaries underemphasize the grand jury's independent investigative powers relative to its indicting function. The Law Mind Encyclopedia entries on grand jury proceedings provide essential supplementation here, particularly regarding Fifth Amendment privilege claims by witnesses.

Fourth, special and mixed juries: forms like the jury de medietate linguæ and the struck jury appear in pre-twentieth-century legal materials and may cause confusion. These were not curiosities but regularly litigated entitlements in commercial and alien-party cases. Researchers working in nineteenth-century commercial litigation records should recognize these forms.

Fifth, civil vs. criminal jury rights: the Seventh Amendment preserves the right to jury trial in federal civil cases "at common law" where the value exceeds twenty dollars. State civil jury rights are governed entirely by state constitutions and statutes, not by federal incorporation. Historical sources often discuss civil and criminal jury rights together; researchers should not assume that doctrine developed symmetrically across both contexts.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries converge on the core definition with notable consistency. Anderson defines a jury as "a body of persons sworn, or affirmed, to decide a matter of fact in controversy in a court of justice" and amplifies with the peer-equality principle: a body "composed of the peers or equals of the person whose rights it is selected or summoned to determine." This peer-equality framing is historically significant and connects the jury institution to feudal concepts of status and judgment by one's fellows.

Bouvier provides the most detailed treatment among the shelf sources, distinguishing the common jury, grand jury, and jury de medietate linguæ, and addressing the numerical requirement directly. Bouvier's note that constitutional provisions referencing "jury" import twelve persons as a matter of definitional force reflects the dominant nineteenth-century American view and shaped state constitutional interpretation well into the twentieth century.

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) embeds its jury definition within a broader jurisprudence entry, briefly defining a jury as "a certain number of men, selected according to law, and sworn (jurati)" — a compact formulation that highlights the oath as the formal constitutive act. The Latin jurati (sworn men) is foundational: the institution's legitimacy derives from the oath, not merely the selection.

Burrill's and Rapalje & Lawrence contribute less directly to the jury entry itself; the relevant Rapalje material concerns perjury before the jury, illustrating the oath's legal consequence. The historical sources collectively say little about the grand jury's investigative function, the cross-section requirement, or constitutional incorporation — all developments that post-date the primary shelf sources and must be drawn from other Law Mind materials.

Jurisdictional Note

Grand jury indictment is required for federal serious offenses under the Fifth Amendment but has not been incorporated against the states. Most states retain grand jury provisions by their own constitutions or statutes, but many allow prosecutors to proceed by information (a charging document filed directly by the prosecutor) in felony cases, with or without a waiver by the defendant. Civil jury rights are entirely state-controlled outside the federal system. Researchers should not assume federal jury doctrine maps onto state practice, particularly in states that have substantially modified grand jury requirements or abolished the petit jury unanimity rule in civil cases.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Grand Jury — Function, Procedure, and Powers (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)
Grand Jury — Fifth Amendment in Grand Jury Proceedings (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)
Mistrial and Hung Jury (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)

JURYmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Jurisprudentia legis communis An- gliæ est scientia socialis et copiosa. The jurisprudence of the common law of England is a science social and comprehen- sive. 7 Coke, 28a.

JURYmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

science of wliat is right and what is wrong Dig. 1, 1, 10, 2; Inst. 1, 1, 1. This defini tion is adopted by Bracton, word for word Bract. fol. 3. Jurisprudentia legis communis Anglia est scientia socialis et copiosa. The jurisprudence of the common law of England is a science social and comprehensive. 7% Coke, 28a. In practice. A certain number of men, selected according to law, and sworn (jurati) to inquire of certain matters of fact, and declare the truth upon evidence to be laid before them. This definition embraces the various subdivisions of juries; as grand jury, petit jury, conmon jury, special jury, coroner’s jury, sheriff's jury, (qd. v-) A jury fs a body of men temporarily selected from the citizens of a particular district, and invested with power to present or indict a person for a public offense, or to try a question of fact. Code Civil Proc. Cal. § 190. The terms “jury” and “trial by jury,” as used in the constitution, mean twelve competent men, disinterested and impartial, not of kin, nor personal dependents of either of the parti having their homes within the jurisdictional limits of the court, drawn and selected by officers free from all bias in favor of or against either party, duly impaneled and sworn to render a true verdict according to the law and the evidence. State v. McClear, 11 Nev. 39. Classification.—Common jury. In A air tice. The ordinary kind of jury by wh is- sues of fact are area tried, as. distinguished from a special jury, (q. v.}—Foreign jury. A jury obtained from a county other than that in which issue was joined. and jury. A jury of inquiry who are summoned and returned by the sheriff to each sexsion of the criminal courts, and whose duty is to receive complaints and accusations in criminal cases, hear the evidence adduced on the part of the state, and find bills of indictment in cases where they are satisfied a trial ought to be had: ‘They are first sworn, and instructed by the court. This is called a “grand jury” because it comprises a greater number of jurors than the ordinary trial jury or “petit jury.”” At common law, a grand jury consisted of not less than twelve nor more than twenty-three men, and this is still the rule in many of the states, though in some the number is otherwise fixed by statute; thus in Oregon and Utah, the grand jury is composed of seven men; in South Dakota, not less than six nor more than eight; in Texas, twelve; in Idaho, sixteen; in Wash-- ington, twelve to seventeen; in North Dakota, sixteen to twenty-three; in California, nineteen; in New Mexico, twenty-one. See Ex parte Bain, 121 U. S. 1, 7 Sup. Ct. 781, 30 L. Ed. 849: In re Gardiner, 31 Misc. Rep. 364, 64 N. ¥. Supp. 760; -Finley v. State. 61 Ala. 204: People v. Duff. 65 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 365; English v. State, 31 Fla. 340, 12 South. 689. =, ed jury. A bilingua) jury; a jury of the half-tongue. See De MEDIETATHZ LIN-

JURYmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

DE MEDIO.-A writ in the nature of a writ of right, which lay for an under-tenant where, upon a subinfeudation, the mesne, or middle lord (the defendant in the writ), suffered the under-tenant, or tenant paravail, to be distrained upon by the lord paramount for the rent due him from the mesne lord.-Reg. Orig. 160; F. N. B. 135; Booth Real Act. 136.

JURYa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

For temporary use; -- applied to a temporary contrivance. Jury mast, a temporary mast, in place of one that has been carried away, or broken.  -- Jury rudder, a rudder constructed for temporary use.

JURYn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A body of men, usually twelve, selected according to law, impaneled and sworn to inquire into and try any matter of fact, and to render their true verdict according to the evidence legally adduced. See Grand jury under Grand, and Inquest. The jury, passing on the prisoner's life. Shak. A committee for determining relative merit or awarding prizes at an exhibition or competition; as, the art jury gave him the first prize. Jury of inquest, a coroner's jury. See Inquest.

jurynoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A group of individuals chosen from the general population to hear and decide a case in a court of law. | A group of judges in a competition. | The audience attending the first night of a performance, whose reaction may determine whether it succeeds or fails.

juryverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To judge by means of a jury.

juryadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

For temporary use; applied to a temporary contrivance.

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