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petit jury

A petit jury, sometimes called a traverse jury, is a body that is sworn in to try the facts of the case. Petit juries are juries known in the common sense; they are responsible for determining the guilt of the defendant and returning a verdict , but they serve a different function than grand juries . Grand juries are not responsible for trying a case itself, rather, they serve to determine whether there is probable cause to indict a potential defendant. 

A petit jury is usually composed of twelve members and can be no less than six. Though, traditionally, most states and all federal courts required that a jury's decision be unanimous, this requirement has been subject to debate. In Apodaca v. Oregon and Johnson v. Louisiana , two Supreme Court cases decided on the same day, the Court held that majority rule verdicts do not violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment . Specifically, the Court found that verdicts supported by a large majority (ten to two in Apodaca and nine to three in Johnson) were sufficient to satisfy the beyond a reasonable doubt standard. 

This holding was eventually overruled in Ramos v. Louisiana , where the Supreme Court held that a unanimous verdict was required to convict a defendant of any serious offense in all states. 

The right to a jury trial is protected by the sixth and seventh amendments. However, a criminal defendant is usually allowed to waive this right and opt for a bench trial , with the exception of capital cases . 

[Last reviewed in July of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team
]

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