EJ+Crime&Punishment+How+were+the+Punshments+decided+on+in+Ancient+Greece

=﻿How were Punishments decided on in ancient Greece?= By Jackson Batchelor

Ancient Greece wasn't known for its harsh punishments like Rome was, though it did have some harsh punishments like death and exile. In the early years of Greece, punishments weren't decided on by a jury, but by the citizens in the town. The citizens then conducted a minor investigation and then told the family where the criminal was. The family then went over to the criminals house and repeated the crime that happened to them. If it was murder the family beat and then killed the criminal. But since they committed murder the other family killed one of them. This happened over and over until one family either died out or there was a truce between them.

Years later at around 600 BC, a man named Draco started a law system and a court. In this new court a jury of around 200 people sat and listened to the defence and then the prosecutor. The jury's job was to also keep order in the court because there was no judges. When the defence was finished the prosecutor started, and when they finished the jury started to talk to one and other and then they voted. Once the vote was cast, the decision was final and but the punishment was never more than the crime. So for example stealing could not be punished by death, but instead could be punished by a fine of some sort.

The ancient greeks were pretty different from our civilisations today. One way they were different from us is that in their courtrooms they didn't have a judge, instead they just had two sides argueing and then the jury voted. In our time this wouldn't be allowed and the trial would be cancelled and thrown out.

The jury was selected by police officers(publicly owned slaves). In order to be a part of the jury you had to be a greek citizen and you had to be open to both sides. Although people kept open minds most of the time the jury was either bribed or threatened into picking a side. This led to mistrials but their civilizations weren't advanced enough to spot a dodgy trial so they proceeded like usual. Although the ancient greek civilastions were still at an early age they did know the difference between some crimes. This was that they knew the difference between an accidental murder and a premeditated one. So when it came to a trial the defence would state this and the punishment when they were found guilty was lowered.

As you can see the ancient greeks were very advanced in dealing with criminals. But with every cullture comes flaws, and their flaws were that they thought every trial was perfect, and because of that criminals who were slightly smarter than the average person, slipped through the cracks. This allowed them to get away with anything they want without any problems or punishments. Only if the ancient greeks knew this vital information they could have made there city more peaceful. Oh well it was 1500 years ago and they were just starting to discover science and maths.