Page "Athenian democracy" Paragraph 26

The cases were put by the litigants themselves in the form of an exchange of single speeches timed by water clock, first prosecutor then defendant.

In a public suit the litigants each had three hours to speak, much less in private suits ( though here it was in proportion to the amount of money at stake ).

Decisions were made by voting without any time set aside for deliberation.

Jurors did talk informally amongst themselves during the voting procedure and juries could be rowdy, shouting out their disapproval or disbelief of things said by the litigants.

This may have had some role in building a consensus.

The jury could only cast a ' yes ' or ' no ' vote as to the guilt and sentence of the defendant.

For private suits only the victims or their families could prosecute, while for public suits anyone ( ho boulomenos, ' whoever wants to ' i. e. any citizen with full citizen rights ) could bring a case since the issues in these major suits were regarded as affecting the community as a whole.