What therefore can be said for a code which inflicts the punishment of hard labor for life?
The system then in process of preparation by the Napoleonic Council of State suppressed the function of the directors of juries, which united many enormous powers.
In relation to the discovery of delinquencies and their prosecution the director of the jury was, in fact, agent of police, public prosecutor, municipal judge, and the court itself.

His proceedings and his indictments were, however, submitted for signature to a commissioner of the executive power and to the verdict of eight jurymen, before whom he laid the facts of the case, and who examined the witnesses and the accused and rendered the preliminary verdict, called the indictment.

The director was, however, in a position to exercise such influence over the jurymen, who met in his private office, that they could not well avoid agreeing with him.

These jurymen were called the jury of indictment.
There were others who formed the juries of the criminal tribunals whose duty it was to judge the accused; these were called, in contradistinction to the jury of indictment, the judgment jury.

The criminal tribunal, to which Napoleon afterwards gave the name of criminal court, was composed of one President or chief justice, four judges, the public prosecutor, and a government commissioner.
Nevertheless, from 1799 to 1806 there were special courts (so-called) which judged without juries certain misdemeanors in certain departments; these were composed of judges taken from the civil courts and formed into a special court.