Functions of jury system in Athens

"Solon created a new system of jury court in ancient Greece. The original intention is to be a' citizen's grand duke as a court'. The actual situation is nothing more than administrative officials hearing lawsuits in the market on the market day, and several citizens who have leisure time participate. However, institutionalizing this method is an important measure for judicial democratization. " [1] After Solon's reform, in the "Kristini Reform" in 509 BC, it was stipulated that every citizen had the right to vote and stand for election as a juror, a member of the "Five Hundred People's Congress" and an administrative official, and a jury system was established. In order to make the criminals get a fair trial, each tribe selected several jurors from Athenian citizens over 30 to form a "jury court". In major cases, jurors participate in the investigation, and then a Committee under the jury court conducts a fair trial. [2] In the "Pericles Legislation", a court with 5,000 jurors was established, with a division for every 50 jurors, and the trial was conducted by the majority vote system.

Now, for example, the trial activities of the jury court in ancient Athens. In 399 BC, Socrates, a 70-year-old philosopher, was sentenced to death by a jury court in Athens. He drank poison in front of many disciples and died peacefully. The whole case was tried according to the public law of Athens. The prosecutors were three Athenian citizens, led by meredith. They accused Socrates of blasphemy and worshipping new gods according to law. The trial procedure of worshipping gods was complicated but democratic. Different from modern times, the courts in Athens have no judges, only the presiding judge, who is responsible for judging and maintaining court order, and the judgment power lies with the jury. The members of the jury were decided by drawing lots from citizens' groups, and 5000 people were selected. On the day of the trial, the city-state officials determined in advance the size of the jury needed to hear each case according to the size of the case, and drew lots to select from 5,000 jury members ranging from 5 to 2,000. On the day of the trial, these jurors were assigned to different courts to hear different cases by drawing lots. Before the trial, each juror was given two small metal plates, one with the words "guilty" and the other with the words "guilty".