Shinaver on juror selection
Jurors are summoned from a Master Jury List. This list is comprised of registered voters and people with driver’s licenses or ID cards issued by the DMV. While this list may include a core segment of our community it certainly does not encompass a statistically accurate cross section of all people residing in Fresno County. Ideally, every eligible member of the community should be on the Master Jury list. That should be our goal. Our challenge is to find ways to dig deeper into our community and include those that are currently disenfranchised from serving as jurors because they are not registered to vote or don’t have a driver’s license.
Having a more representative and expansive Master Jury list benefits the community as a whole. Not only would such an expanded list include those that are currently excluded from this civic process, it would also provide some relief to those that are on the list and asked to serve so frequently. It would also provide all litigants, whether criminal or civil, a pool of jurors to which they entitled under the law – one that represents a fair and accurate cross section of their community, a true jury of their peers.
Of course our responsibility as a Community does not end there. The next challenge is to ensure that once summoned from the Master Jury list, those prospective jurors, from whatever demographic, respond and participate in the process. Most people realize and accept that jury service is part of their civic responsibility. However, we need to make sure that this awareness continues to be fostered among all members of our community and that our youth receive this understanding as part of their civic education.
The “one-trial or one-day” system currently used in Fresno County to bring in prospective jurors to the courthouse for the actual jury selection process is certainly a vast improvement over the former system that required prospective jurors to return to the courthouse day after day for sometimes as much as a week or more. However, we should not be content with a view that this process is beyond further improvement. The courts should continue to examine ways to assist prospective jurors in carrying out their civic responsibility of jury service with the least disruption to their daily lives as possible. This should include dealing with such issues as availability of downtown parking for summoned jurors, the frequency of receiving a jury service summons, and the length of time that a prospective juror must remain “on-call” once summoned. As a judge I will be committed to improving the juror selection process whenever and wherever possible.