Trial by Jury

Twelfth Century:  Jury for property cases (Writs)
                                Jury for criminal cases (Assize of Clarendon)

Fourth Lateran Council, 1215

Jury as a new mode of proof

Writ of 1219 to the Justices of the Eyre
1.  Major crimes, robbery, murder:  prison
2.  Medium crimes: exile
3.  Lesser crimes: fines

At first a jury trial was voluntary --- "put himself on the country"
Prison forte et dure  -- peine forte et dure

The transition from an indicting jury to a deciding jury was a very slow one, and there was a fairly extended period in which judges were not bound by a jury's verdict.  The idea of an impartial jury only took root in the fifteenth century.