In common law, embracery is the attempt to influence a juror corruptly to give their verdict in favour of one side or the other in a trial.
[1] The false verdict of a jury, whether occasioned by embracery or otherwise, was formerly considered criminal, and jurors were severely punished, being proceeded against by writ of attaint.
The Juries Act 1825, in abolishing the by then almost obsolete writs of attaint, made a special exemption as regards jurors guilty of embracery (s.61).
Prosecution for the offence has been so extremely rare that when a case occurred in 1891[2] it was stated that no precedent could be found for the indictment.
[8][9] In the United States, embracery prosecutions have occurred as recently as 1989, when a county commissioner in Georgia was sentenced to a fine and probation.