Texas Supreme Court advisory

Contact: Osler McCarthy, staff attorney for public information

(512) 463-1441 or click for email

Monday, July 17, 2006

SUPREME COURT APPOINTS TASK FORCE

TO STUDY JURY-SELECTION ISSUES

The Supreme Court of Texas has appointed a 19-member task force to study improvements for how juries are selected for trials in the state, including procedures to assure random jury selection.

Led by Regional Presiding Judge David Peeples of San Antonio, the Task Force on Jury Assembly and Administration is charged with reporting findings and recommendations to the Court by December 1, 2006. Justice Paul W. Green will be the Court’s liaison.

“Litigants in Texas deserve a fair and random jury selection process. Long gone are the days when jury trials were strictly a local matter,” said Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson. “Much of the litigation today occurs on a statewide basis. Lawyers, and more importantly the public, should be afforded a measure of consistency in jury selections, wherever the trials occur.”

The task force was created by Supreme Court order posted Monday. Click here for order.

Among its charges:

>> assess the reliability of voter registration and drivers license lists used to call jurors for duty and whether revisions are needed to existing procedures for merging the lists.

>> assess the need for uniform jury plans or statewide approval for jury plans, including a depository for local jury plans.

>> assess designating and training officials who shuffle and randomize jury lists and summon jurors for duty.

>> assess procedures for enforcing jury summonses that have been disregarded.

>> assess how jury excuses, exemptions and service postponements are handled and recorded.

>> assess procedures for random jury selection and disbursement from the central gathering point to different courtrooms.

The task force will review jury procedures for both civil and criminal trials.