Origin Early 20th century, United States (Harry Thaw murder trial, first known sequestered jury)
Jury sequestration is the isolation of a jury to prevent accidental or deliberate tainting by exposure to outside influence or information not admissible in court. A sequestered jury is typically housed in a hotel, cut off from newspapers, television and the internet, and kept under restricted contact with other people. The practice serves two purposes: keeping jurors from encountering inadmissible information through media coverage or public discussion, and protecting them from tampering through undue persuasion, threats or bribery. Sequestration is rare and becoming rarer, owing to its expense and concern about the burden it places on jurors, so in most multi-day trials jurors instead go home each night under instructions to avoid improper influence, with full sequestration reserved mainly for high-profile cases receiving heavy media coverage. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin PeriodEarly 20th century, United States (Harry Thaw murder trial, first known sequestered jury) 1 Core PrincipleIsolating a jury to prevent accidental or deliberate tainting by outside influence or inadmissible information 1 Origin Period
Origin Period (category)20th Century (1900-1999) 1 Classification
Doctrine Category Connections
In Area Of Law
Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
Sources
1. Jury sequestration (Wikipedia)
Notable cases in the United States section
The Harry Thaw trial for the murder of Stanford White, known as "The Trial of the Century," was the first to use a sequestered jury due to the excessive media attention and high-profile nature of the case.
Lead section
Jury sequestration is the isolation of a jury to avoid accidental or deliberate tainting of the jury by exposing them to outside influence or information that is not admissible in court.
View the Source2. Wikipedia: Jury sequestration
the isolation of a jury to avoid accidental or deliberate tainting of the juryView the Source Frequently Asked Questions
When was a sequestered jury first used?
In the Harry Thaw murder trial, an early twentieth century United States case.
The Harry Thaw trial for the murder of Stanford White, known as "The Trial of the Century," was the first known to use a sequestered jury, because of the excessive media attention and high profile of the case. The practice dates to the early twentieth century in the United States.
Why are juries sequestered?
To keep jurors from outside influence or inadmissible information.
Sequestration isolates a jury to avoid accidental or deliberate tainting of the jury by exposing them to outside influence or information that is not admissible in court.
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