Pastor Rick Bartosic outlines several 'minor irregularities' in The Trial Of Jesus before The Sanhedrin:
1. There was to be no arrest accomplished by a bribe.
2. All criminal cases had to be tried in the daytime.
3. There could be no secret trials, only public.
4. Sanhedrin trials could only take place in the Hall of Judgement in the temple compound. No decision was valid which did not take place there.
5. All evidence had to be guaranteed by two or three witnesses whose testimony had to agree in every detail or the prisoner was discharged immediately.
6. The witnesses were the accusers who had seen the crime, arranged for the arrest and presented the accusation before the judges.
7. A false witness was put to death.
8. Before a trial could begin there must be a presentation of the accusation by the witnesses (indictment) then arrest and trial.
9. At the trial the defense had to come first.
10. The judges were never to seek to condemn the accused. They were to take his side and seek every means for his acquittal.
11. The accused person never to be allowed to testify against himself.
12. A person could never be condemned on the basis of his own words alone.
13. In cases of capital punishment, the trial and the guilty verdict cannot occur at the same time but must be separated by 24 hours.
14. The verdict must be announced in the daytime.
15. After hearing the testimony of the witnesses, they must vote individually beginning with the youngest so they would not be influenced by the elders.
16. A unanimous decision for guilt shows innocence since it is impossible for 23 to 71 men to agree without plotting.
17. The judges were to be humane and kind.
18. The condemned person was not to be beaten or scourged beforehand.
"The law was broken so many times in the trial of Jesus that it is hard to see how a trial could have been more illegally run or the laws of Israel more thoroughly flouted." James Boice.
