Government cooperation produces more accurate list of jury names
David J. Remondini, Counsel to the Chief Justice of Indiana, has sent IB the following press release which you can read by clicking the link below:
COOPERATION ON JURY LIST PROJECT WILL LEAD TO MORE DIVERSE JURIES AND REDUCED COSTS FOR LOCAL TAXPAYERS
A cooperative venture between the Indiana Supreme Court, the Department of Revenue, and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will lead to a broader pool of jurors and provide significant savings in reduced mailing costs to Indiana’s counties, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard announced today.
Matching existing lists of taxpayers with current lists of drivers and ID card holders has produced a new list of Hoosiers that has more up to date address information for jury selection than has existed in the past. By matching specific identifying information from the Department of Revenue and the BMV, duplicate names and addresses have been largely eliminated.
“This is a classic case of different branches of government working together to produce something at little cost that will ultimately make our juries more representative. It will also cut down on mailing costs because it will have more accurate addresses than voter mailing lists and reduce the number of returned mailings,” Chief Justice Shepard said.
For several years, the Supreme Court has been working to enhance jury experience by streamlining procedures, allowing jurors to ask questions and to enable them to discuss a case with other jurors while the trial is underway. Justice Theodore R. Boehm agreed to spearhead the jury list project by working with leaders in the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Revenue with support from the Indiana Judicial Center, the technical staff of JTAC and Purdue University faculty and graduate assistants.
“Justice Boehm, Lake Superior Judge John Pera of our Jury Committee, and the leaders of the current and past administration should be proud of what has been accomplished,” Chief Justice Shepard added.
Historically, lists of prospective jurors have been compiled from voter registration lists but recent Supreme Court rule changes now require counties to use at least one additional source of names. For many years the voter roll was the only list. But it only included just more than half of the eligible jurors in most counties and typically included large numbers of persons who are either deceased or had moved. The inaccurate lists result in a significant cost to the counties in the form of wasted postage and clerical time in processing mailings to unusable addresses.
To create the list, the Department of Revenue and the BMV and the Court’s Judicial Technology and Automation Committee worked together to produce a merged and purged list of both BMV and DOR records. The resulting list avoids the problem of underpopulation because many people pay taxes or have BMV licenses or identity cards, but are not registered to vote. It also limits the number of faulty addresses caused by moves or deaths.
The Indiana Judicial Center started distributing the new lists to the counties in September.
For more information about jury duty in Indiana visit: www.in.gov/judiciary/juryduty
