Hitherto John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin had handled most of the examinations, with occasional assists from Bartholomew Gedney, Samuel Sewall, and Thomas Danforth. Now grand and petty juries composed of Essex County men and a large panel of distinguished judges would assess the validity of the evidence the justices of the peace had gathered, and would determine the ultimate fate of the many people accused, arrested, and jailed. The court would begin its first session on June 2, but that could not happen without considerable preliminary work. Jurors had to be summoned, witnesses and confessors reinterviewed, and depositions collected. The primary responsibility for many of those tasks still fell on Hathorne and Corwin, as the men most familiar with the evidence unearthed so far. Thomas Newton, the prosecutor, also had to decide whom to try first and how to present his case most effectively to the grand and petty juries. The court had no predetermined schedule, so much would depend on the success of the first prosecutions.PREPARING FOR THE TRIALSIn late May, while they continued interrogating new suspects in Salem Village, Hathorne and Corwin also began preparing for the first formal proceedings against those who had been accused much earlier.
