Jury trial
William the Conqueror brought to England a system of having witnesses who had any knowledge of a crime, tell the court what they knew. They did this after first swearing an oath. The word juror in English comes from the French jurer (to swear). In the 12th century juries were used by the king to discover and present facts. Usually this was in answer to questions posed by the king or his ministers who made the final decision in the case. Eventually this led to a system where the jury made a verdict based on evidence. In the late colonial period, juries became a tool used to express American discontent with British rule. A series of Navigation Acts prohibited the American colonies from trading directly with the Netherlands, Spain, France, and their colonies. As more and more trade restriction were imposed, the American colonists turned to smuggling. When smugglers were caught, they were brought before juries made up of other colonists. These sympathetic juries often acquitted their fellow colonists. The king, angered at these lawbreakers going free, created new courts that did not allow juries. This was a breach of common law practice and infringed on their rights as British citizens. After the Revolutionary war, the Seventh Amendment's right to a jury trial was written to limit the powers of the executive and the Judicial branches of the new federal government.