ABSTRACT
For an Englishman, a “trial by jury,” proclaimed Blackstone in his Commentaries just a year before the massacre, “is the grand bulwark of his liberties.” Trial by jury was a vote of confidence in the ability of untrained men to weigh evidence, understand the concept of reasonable doubt, distinguish the probable from the improbable, and know when circumstantial evidence might be sufficient to warrant a conviction. Nothing better captures the English essence of colonial Massachusetts law than the impaneling of a grand jury, the handing down of an indictment, and a trial before yet another jury, all of the jurors drawn from freemen residing in the same venue where the alleged crime occurred. In theory any jury verdict tendered there or decision reached by the court could be appealed to the king in council.
