Footnote

a According to the book The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.–A.D. 135), by Emil Schürer, although the Mishnah contains no account of the procedures of the Great Sanhedrin, or Sanhedrin of Seventy-One, those of the lesser Sanhedrins, of 23 members, are set out in minute detail. Law students could attend capital cases tried by the lesser Sanhedrins, where they were permitted to speak only for and not against the accused. In cases not involving a capital offense, they could do both.