Happy Juror Appreciation Week, California!
As many of you may know, juries are a major part of my current career. So, in honor of this year's Juror Appreciation Week mandated by the California Legislature to celebrate those who serve as jurors, I thought I would share some interesting information about juries here and abroad. The first jury trial in America was held in 1630 in Plymouth. The case was that of John Billington who was accused of murdering fellow Mayflower colonist John Newcomin. The jury found the defendant guilty of "willful murder by plain and notorious evidence," and he was executed by hanging. Governor John Bradford later wrote that the jury had taken "all possible pains in the trial." Eliza Stewart Boyd was the first woman in America ever selected to serve on a jury. In March 1870, her name was drawn from the voters’ roll to serve on the grand jury to be convened later that month. Soon after the grand jury was convened, five other Laramie women made history becoming the first women in t...