California bill will let non-citizens serve on juries
SACRAMENTO, California - The
California Assembly passed a bill on Thursday that would make the state
the first in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country
legally to serve on jury duty.
Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, said his bill, AB1401, would help California widen the pool of prospective jurors and help integrate undocumented immigrants into the community.
It does not change other criteria for being eligible to serve on a
jury, such as being at least 18, living in the county that is making the
summons, and being proficient in English.
The bill passed 45-25 largely on a party-line vote in the
Democratic-controlled Assembly and will move on to the Senate. One
Democrat - Assemblyman Adam Gray, of Merced - voted no, while some other
Democrats did not vote.
Democratic lawmakers who voted for the bill said there is no
correlation between being a citizen and a juror, and they noted that
there is no citizenship requirement to be an attorney or a judge.
Republican lawmakers who opposed Wieckowski's bill called it misguided
and premature.
Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, said there is no shortage of jurors.
"Jury selection is not the problem. The problem is trial court
funding," Harkey said before the vote. "I hope we can focus on that.
Let's not break something; it's not broken now. Let's not whittle away
at what is reserved for U.S. citizens. There's a reason for it."
Wieckowski's office said the bill is the first of its kind in the
nation and suggested that courts regularly struggle to find enough
prospective jurors because jury duty is often seen as an inconvenience,
if not a burden. His office did not cite any statistics but pointed to a
2003 legislative report that said numerous articles have noted high
rates of non-participation.
A 2007 survey by the Center for Jury Studies said 20 percent of
courts across the country reported a failure to respond or failure to
appear rate of 15 percent or higher. The center is run by the National
Center for State Courts, a Virginia-based nonprofit dedicated to
improving court systems.
It's not clear, however, if that rate translates to a shortage of jurors in California.
Noting that women were once kept off juries, Assembly Speaker John
Perez, D-Los Angeles, said the judicial system should be changed to
allow a person to be judged by their peers.
"This isn't about affording someone who would come in as a juror
something," Perez said. "But rather understanding that the importance of
the jury selection process of affording justice to the person in that
courtroom."
An estimated 10 million Californians are summoned for jury duty
each year and about 4 million are eligible and available to serve,
according to the Judicial Council, which administers the state's court
system. About 3.2 million complete the service, meaning they waited in a
courthouse assembly room or were placed on call.
In 2010-2011, the most recent year available, only about 165,000 people were sworn in as jurors.
The judicial branch has not taken a position on AB 1401.
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