Otey on Jesus and Due Process

Melvin Otey (Faulkner University - Thomas Goode Jones School of Law) has posted Jesus’s Objections During His Preliminary Examination and Modern Notions of Due Process (Regent University Law Review, Vol. 35, No. 91, 2022) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

 

The trials of Jesus of Nazareth are among the most famous legal proceedings in the world and among the most influential on Western culture. Notably, most scholars emphasize various aspects of the Sanhedrin and Roman proceedings to the neglect of the preliminary hearing that occurred first. Among other outstanding aspects of that hearing, Jesus registered clear objections to being questioned by the high priest and assaulted by the high priest’s officer. This Article examines those protestations in the larger context of Jesus’s silence during his ensuing trials and proposes that these ancient objections still resonate with modern conceptions of due process.