  A group of privately informed agents chooses between two alternatives. How
should the decision rule be designed if agents are known to be biased in favor
of one of the options? We address this question by considering the Condorcet
Jury Setting as a mechanism design problem. Applications include the optimal
decision mechanisms for boards of directors, political committees, and trial
juries.
  While we allow for any kind of mechanism, the optimal mechanism is a voting
mechanism. In the terminology of the trial jury example: When jurors (agents)
are more eager to convict than the lawmaker (principal), then the defendant
should be convicted if and only if neither too many nor too few jurors vote to
convict.
  This kind of mechanism accords with a judicial procedure from ancient Jewish
law.
