October 29,2006

Have you ever thought about the possibility that the Prosecutor in a case could get the jury he wanted?  If you have, then you must be from Red River County.  I want everyone here to understand that this is something that I have thought about because several individuals in this county have asked me this very question about juries. They wondered if it could be possible to stack a jury in favor of the prosecution, and if it has happened.

I am the type of person who thinks about things that people ask me, and just recently, it struck me like a bolt of lightening that this could happen. Why did it strike me...  because I know of a few individuals that were on a list that did not get a summons.

I am not saying this is happening, I am saying that it could happen.  It would have to be in a place where the elected officials were friends with each other, and were willing to work with each other to sway a jury pool.

The way the petit juror selection works in the State of Texas is by Drivers License and Voter Registration.  Everyone in a County who falls inside those two groups are placed into the jury wheel (and the type of wheel differs between counties at the present time).  This is usually a computer program that randomly selects people from those two groups.

I don't know how many of you have seen a petit jury print out, but it list names randomly, not in alphabetical or any other order.  These names take up several pages in Red River County. 

Now for the example of how to tamper with the jury pool.  Let's say (and this is only an example, not a known fact) that the District Clerk in a county and the County Attorney are close friends.  The County Attorney could go to the District Clerk, after he/she prints out the petit juror pool for the upcoming session and get himself/herself a copy.  Then the County Attorney goes through the list and picks out, lets say 30 names out of 200 that he would not want on a jury.  He then takes the list back to the District Clerk, who while mailing out the summons to the people on the list, he/she just happens to not mail those 30 people their summons.  Of course, if you are one of those 30 people, you will never know that you were on the list, unless the District Judge decides to issue a warrant for your arrest for ignoring the summons. (How many times has anyone been arrested for not showing up for jury duty?) 

On the day of court, those 30 people do not show up along with 20 more who just did not bother to come.  Juries are picked from the top of the random list down, and lets just say (for example) that 15 of those 30 names were in the first part of the printout, which moves 15 people up in the list. Also the 20 who just did not bother to come were mixed partially into that group, and that moves 20 more people up the list.  Lets say now, that the first 30 names are sent to the court where one of the main trials that the County Attorney (who always wants a conviction) is trying someone, and he has had 15 of these people on juries before, and he knows they give favorable verdicts to the prosecution.  For example lets assume that the County Attorney has 6 juror challenges or (strikes) that he can use to keep anyone he feels is unfavorable to his case off of the jury.

As you can see, now he has basically acquired 21 strikes for his side. (That's 15+6 = 21) This example just shows how a jury could be stacked in favor of the Prosecutor.

Has this been happening in our County?  Could this happen?  Only the people involved could know, because our form of Government takes the word of elected officials as truth. The assumption of honesty in government is part of our system.  If (and I say if) we have corruption in our government, then this could very easily happen to anyone who happens to be a defendant. 

Citizens need to look around and pay attention when called for jury duty.  Make a mental note of someone you know whose name was called that did not show up.  After you get home call up that person, and ask the question....  Did you know that you had jury duty?  Did you get your summons?  If the answer is "I did not know I had jury duty because I did not get a summons." then you know!

I want everyone to know that I am not saying this is happening, but those few who did not get summons got me to thinking, and they were fair minded individuals who would not just "Go along to Get along" if you know what I mean.

"Just some mental food for thought on a beautiful Sunday afternoon."

Those summons could have been "lost in the mail" because they are mailed first class, so who really knows.  It just made me sit up and take notice.  Seems it would be better if some sort of signature required would be good, but that would make postage higher, and in turn increase taxes.  What would be even better is that we could "trust" all elected officials, but we all know that is completely impossible.

"Sordid Affairs?"