When confronted with cases of self-killing, medieval jurors had to contend with a
vast array of often conflicting concerns, from religious and folkloric condemnations
of the act of suicide, to fears for the welfare of the family of the dead, and to coping
with royal confiscations of a felon’s goods. All of these factors had a profound impact
on the verdicts put forward by members of the jury during the various stages of the
legal process. While these elements form the base of jury verdicts relating to
self-killings, it must nevertheless be acknowledged that medieval juries did not
respond uniformly to cases of suicide. Rather, jurors at various stages of the process
differed widely in their familiarity with the dead and this familiarity had an impact
on their judgments. Members of the coroners’ inquest juries were often neighbors
of the dead, and thus their verdicts reflected a more local resolution to the death
of a community member than the verdicts of presentment or trial juries.