Why Are There 12 People on a Jury?

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to http://to.pbs.org/DonateORIG
↓ More info and sources below ↓

Check out Antarctic Extremes on PBS Terra:    • How We Got to Antarctica | Antarctic Extremes  
When picturing a jury, you probably imagine 12 people - no more, no less. But did you know there is no hard and fast rule about how many members are required on a jury? Today, Danielle looks at the differences between petit and grand juries and the historical accidents that have lead many to believe that juries MUST have twelve members.

Special thanks to our Historian Harry Brisson on Patreon! Join them at   / originofeverything  

Created and Hosted by Danielle Bainbridge
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios

---
Follow us on...
Facebook:   / originofeverythingpbs  
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pbsoriginof...
---
Origin of Everything is a show about the undertold histories and cultural dialogues that make up our collective story. From the food we eat, to the trivia and fun facts we can’t seem to get out of our heads, to the social issues we can’t stop debating, everything around us has a history. Origin of Everything is here to explore it all. We like to think that no topic is too small or too challenging to get started.

Works Cited:
https://www.americanbar.org/news/aban...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/v...
https://lifehacker.com/the-most-commo...
https://www.thoughtco.com/can-nonregi...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylo...
https://www.insidescience.org/news/ma...
https://www.uscourts.gov/services-for...
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/11/we...
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects...
https://www.opb.org/news/article/supr...
https://www.nola.com/news/crime_polic...
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/r...
https://www.nola.com/news/courts/arti...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/...
https://law.jrank.org/pages/1434/Jury...
https://daily.jstor.org/trial-by-comb...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45799443
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collate...
http://www.uniformlaws.org/ActSummary...
https://apnews.com/50fb651b7fb8422188...
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1969/927
Thomas Aiello (2015) Jim Crow’s Last Stand: The non-unanimous jury verdict in the state of Louisiana
Lawrence Rosen (2006) Law as Culture
Karen E Hayden (2019) Society & Law