## Facts

- Fred Maxwell and others were indicted for murder by a grand jury in Erie County, Pennsylvania.
- A woman served as a member of the grand jury that returned the indictment.
- Defendants moved to quash the indictment, asserting women were not legally qualified to serve as jurors under Pennsylvania law and constitutional provisions protecting “trial by jury.”
- The trial court quashed the indictment, reasoning the state constitutional guarantee that jury trial remain “as heretofore” preserved an all-male jury as at common law.
- The Commonwealth appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether women were legally eligible to serve on Pennsylvania juries after the Nineteenth Amendment made women electors.
2. Whether the inclusion of a woman on a grand jury rendered its indictment invalid.
3. Whether the Pennsylvania Constitution’s “trial by jury shall be as heretofore” language fixed juror qualifications to common-law limitations.

## Decision

- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the order quashing the indictment.
- The Court held women were eligible for jury service in Pennsylvania.
- The indictment was reinstated, and the lower court was directed to proceed with trial.

## Legal Principles

- Constitutional protection of the jury-trial institution does not require preserving every historical restriction on juror qualifications.
- Juror qualifications are generally subject to legislative definition and modification, even when statutory criteria differ from common-law qualifications.
- Where juror selection statutes draw jurors from “electors,” expansion of the electorate by federal constitutional amendment expands the statutory jury-eligible class unless state law validly provides otherwise.
- A grand jury indictment is not invalid merely because a qualified woman served on the grand jury.

## Conclusion

The court held that, once women became electors under the Nineteenth Amendment, they fell within Pennsylvania’s statutory class eligible for jury service, and the state constitutional jury-trial guarantee did not entrench an all-male jury; therefore, the murder indictment returned by a grand jury including a woman was reinstated.


Commonwealth v. Maxwell, 271 Pa. 378, 114 A. 825 (Pa. 1921)