New Law Will Expand Local Jury Pools

On July 1 of 2012 a new law will go into effect, expanding local jury pools to include every citizen who is legally eligible. According to the new law, all county residents 18 years of age or older that vote or have a driver's license or state issued identification card will be eligible for jury duty.

Prior to this new law Georgia was the only state remaining that required "forced balancing" of jury pools, which means that jury pools were created by local jury commissions in the state's 159 counties. This "forced balancing" was in place to ensure the pools were not skewed by gender or race. The Council of Superior Court Clerks will be delivering each county's jury pool by July 1.

The new system is based on inclusion rather than exclusion and a list of prospective jurors will be compiled using the entire state driver's license file in addition to the entire state voter registry. The Council of Superior Court Clerks will certify the list as inclusive and distribute the list to each of the 159 jury commissions in the state. A representative sample of available jurors will then be chosen in a random manner by local jury clerks.

Gwinnett Court Administrator Philip Boudewyns stated in a press release, "Essentially, we will have only one jury pool consisting of persons who may be summoned for service as jurors for jury trials and grand jury. This is a radical change since, for over 200 years, only the names of persons deemed by jury commissioners to be the ‘most intelligent, most experienced and most upright citizens’ of the county were placed in the grand jury pool. How this translates for local citizens is that they are subject to be summoned for service as either a grand or trial juror.”

Jurors may be permanently excused from duty due to death, non-residency and permanent medical or mental infirmities confirmed by a medical doctor or psychologist. Individuals convicted of felons who have not had their civil rights restored are disqualified as well. Boudewyns warns that with the new system, citizens previously permanently excused from jury service may be summoned from the new list.