How was a trial in ancient Athens different from today?

Answer 1

There were no judges and lawyers at trials in ancient Athens. There was a large jury of 500 or more empanelled; it lasted one day; the prosecutor and defence had equal time; there were no rules of evidence of statements under oath - the jury usually had local knowledge, so blatant lying damaged you case; the jury voted with a yes or no tablet placed in a box; the first vote was for guilty or not guilty; the second vote was for the punishment - each side proposed a punishment - as the jury could only select one or the other, the proposals had to be reasonable or it would be ignored; there were no set punishments - it could be anything - one convicted man proposed paying for a warship for a year, which was attractive to the jury.

The effect of all this was that the large jury was the equivalent of an opinion poll of the citizenry, so trial outcomes reflected the standards an opinion of the whole community, rather than a small segment of legal practitioners and riggable of fallible small juries and set codes of punishment.