Op-Ed | New York’s Court of Appeals allows jury of 11 to convict criminal defendant

For the first time in 342 years, a New York court ruled that a criminal defendant can be convicted by a jury of 11 after the defendant tried to tamper with the jury. The hallowed 12-person jury, which originated in medieval England and may have links to Jesus Christ and his Twelve Apostles, has become one of the most embedded features in American jurisprudence.

In its ruling last month, the New York Court of Appeals found that a defendant’s “egregious conduct” in confronting the foreperson of the jury at his home and instilling a fear of harm to the juror and his family amounted to a forfeiture of the defendant’s right to a 12-person jury.

The facts are not really disputed. The defendant, Derek Sargeant, after a violent encounter with a 20-year-old woman in the basement of his Queens hom