Again, what do you mean by "peers"? In the justice system, it just means a cross-section of the community that is as impartial as possible, as filtered out by the voir dire process. I don't think in any way these are his friends or family or colleagues or buddy-buddy with him. They were just what is typically called a jury of one's peers, as in fellow citizen. I do believe they were his fellow citizens that ruled on the judgement, yes.
