9. Birth of the Jury

TASK 1. Match each word on the left -with the correct definition on the right. Consult the text when necessary.

a) sole 1. to judge, consider

b) ordeal 2. to take to or upon oneself

c) convene 3. to give support to, maintain

d) medieval 4. to become manifest or known, to rise from an obscure

or inferior position

e) defendant 5. come together in a body

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f) assume

g) reveal h) emerge i) uphold

j) superstition

k) admonish 1) deem

6. the only one

7. of the Middle Ages

8. to warn, advise against

9. sb. against whom a criminal charge or a civil claim is made

10. a method formerly used to determine guilt or innocence by submitting the accused to dangerous or painful tests whose outcome was believed to depend on divine or supernatural intervention

11. to make known

12. a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance

Juries first came into being in Norman Britain because of the Church. In medieval Europe, trials were usually decided by ordeals - in which it was believed God intervened, revealing the wrongdoer and upholding the righteous. In the ordeal by water, for instance, a priest admonished the water not to accept a liar. The person whose oath was being tested was then thrown in. If he floated, his oath was deemed to have been perjured. If he was telling the truth, he might drown but his innocence was clear.

In 1215, however, the Catholic Church decided that trial by ordeal was superstition, and priests were forbidden to take part. As a result, a new method of trial was needed, and the jury system emerged.

At first the jury was made up of local people who could be expected to know the defendant. A jury was convened only to "say the truth" on the basis of its knowledge of local affairs. The word verdict reflects this early function; the Latin world from which it is derived, veredictum, means "truly said". It was not until centuries later that the jury assumed its modern role of deciding facts on the sole basis of what is heard in court. Today the jury system has spread to numerous other countries. Every year more than 100,000 jury trials are held in US courts - 90 per cent of the world total.