HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-JURY-1992 64/0.22.92
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Jury Selection Sub-committee, Mayor' s Task Force on Police-
Minority Relations
Meeting June 17, 1992
Present : Charles Guttman, Nick Celia , Irene Stein
Absent : Benj . Darden, Jim Kerrigan, Marilyn Ray, Lillie Tucker
Minutes :
Purpose of Sub-committee : To broaden the lists from which jury
selection is made to include minorities , renters , low income
individuals .
Objectives : to understand current laws and implementation
procedures .
to brainstorm addditional ideas for broadening the
jury selection lists .
to make recommendations to Task Force .
Assignments :
Guttman will prepare and circulate to committee in advance
of next meeting a summary of current law and regulations
concerning jury selection .
Benj . Darden will prepare and circulate to committee to
committee in advance of next meeting some ideas for broadening
the selection lists .
Jim Kerrigan will determine the actual way the draw is made
and whether or not it takes place in public . He will also
determine the lists currently in use . Jim will circulate this
information to the committee in advance of the next meeting
Marilyn Ray will determine what progress , if any, has been
made on the jury selectio 1p issue b the recent committee
established by the irculats eii o to the committee in
advance of the next meeting.
Nick Celia will call all members about their assignments and
the date of the next meeting, which is THURSDAY, JULY 2 , 7 : 30
P.M. , CITY ATTORNEY' S OFFICE, 4TH FLOOR, CITY HALL .
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CITY OF ITHACA
106 EAST GREEN STREET
ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850
OFFICE OF TELEPHONE: (607)274-6504
CITY ATTORNEY
FAX: (607)272-7348
June 18, 1992
Jury Selection Sub-committee
Dear Sir/Madam:
I have been asked to report to the Subcommittee regarding the
laws which govern the selection of jurors. This subject is covered
by Article 16 of the Judiciary Law. I am enclosing a copy of that
Article for your reference.
Section 500 of the Judiciary Law states that it is the policy
of New York State that jurors be selected at random from a cross-
section of the community in the county or other governmental
subdivision wherein the court convenes and that all eligible
citizens shall have the opportunity to serve on juries and shall
have an obligation to serve when summoned unless exempted,
disqualified or excused.
Section 502 establishes the office of commissioner of jurors
who is responsible for taking any necessary steps to enforce the
laws and rules relating to the drawing, selection, summoning and
impanelling. Section 503 establishes a county jury board which
includes a justice of the Supreme Court residing in the county, a
judge of the county court, and a member of the county legislature.
Section 504 then provides that the county jury board shall appoint
the Commissioner of Jurors for a term of four (4) years and that
the county jury board may appoint the county clerk or other county
officer or employee to serve as commissioner of jurors.
Section 506 of the Judiciary Law governs the source of names
for prospective jurors. It provides that the "commissioner of
jurors shall cause the name of prospective jurors to be selected
at random from the voter registration list, and from such other
available lists of the county as a chief administrator of the
courts shall specify, such as lists of utility subscribers,
licensed operators of motor vehicles, registered owners of motor
vehicles, state and local tax payers, and persons who have
volunteered to serve as jurors by filing with the commissioner
their names and places of residence."
"An Equal Opportunity Employer with an Affirmative Action Program" 0 Recycled Paper
F.
Section 697(e) of the Tax Law provides generally for
confidentiality of tax information. However, Subdivision 3 of that
section specifically provides that nothing in that section shall
be construed to prohibit the delivery by the Commissioner of
Taxation and Finance to a Commissioner of Jurors a mailing list of
individuals to whom income tax forms are mailed provided that such
delivery shall only be made pursuant to the order of the chief
administrator of the courts; that no such order may be issued
unless the chief administrator is satisfied that such mailing list
is needed to compile a proper list of prospective jurors for the
county and that in view of the responsibilities imposed on the
Department of Taxation and Finance it is reasonable to require the
commissioner of taxation of finance to furnish such lists; and that
such lists shall be used for the sole purpose of compiling a list
of prospective jurors and that the commissioner of jurors shall
take all necessary steps to insure that the list is kept
confidential.
Section 507 of the Judiciary Law governs the manner in which
the commissioner of jurors selects the names of prospective jurors.
It states that they shall be selected at random from the sources
provided in Section 506 and that the selection may be accomplished
by mechanical means or by any other method designed to implement
the purposes of Article 16 . Sections 509, 510, 511, 512 govern the
qualifications, disqualifications and exemptions of jurors.
With regard to city courts, Section 1306 of the Uniform City
Court Act governs jury terms and provides that all provisions of
law applicable to trial jurors and supreme court shall apply as
nearly as possible in city court. It is my understanding that the
jury commissioner compiles the county list of jurors and that when
a jury list is needed for city court the county list is sorted by
municipality to come up with a shorter list of city court
prospective jurors.
Very truly you s,
7/_/7/2ZAJ -/Z--)-6 )//)
Charles Guttman
City Attorney
Enclosure
cc: Mayor Benjamin Nichols
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THE FINGER LAKES LAW SOCIAL POLICY CENT EDP� . 06 1992
96 Besemer Road Ithaca. New York 14850 (607) 539-7778
Marilyn L. Ray. Ph.D. Carol Bohmer. LLM.. PhD.
Director of Policy and Program JUN 2 9 \992 Director of Legal(Studies
Planning and Evaluation
MEMO TO: Members of the Jury Selection Sub-committee, Mayor's Task Force
on Police-Minority Relations
FROM: Marilyn Ray lt-
SUBJECT: 1) Response to my assignment as contained in the minutes of the June
17th meeting of the sub-committee, and 2) a suggestion for
consideration
DATE: June 23, 1992
1) Sometime this spring, Mr. Seldin, president of the TC Bar Association,
requested the Judiciary Committee investigate jury selection practices in
Tompkins County and report their findings to him before the end of June.
Mr. Seldin informs me that he will forward a copy of the report to me when
he receives it. As soon as I receive it, I will forward a copy to the sub-
committee for circulation.
The Judiciary Committee is comprised of Anna Holmberg, Jack Kelleher,
Wes McDermott, and Ingrid Olsen-Tjensvold.
2) Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the first meeting of our sub-
committee and will be out of town for the meeting scheduled for July 2nd. ,
Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to make the following
suggestion for consideration by the sub-committee. .
In order to ensure jury pools contain minority community members in
proportion to their representation in the total population of the county,
Monroe County has devised a stratified random selection system in which that
proportion of names are drawn into each pool from zip codes where the
majority of minority people live. As I understand it, this system has
withstood challenges.
It would seem a relatively easy matter to devise a similar system for
Tompkins County using voting districts to stratify the pool. Similarly,
many, if not most, low income and disenfranchised peoples have utilities
registered in their names. Adding utilities lists to the lists from which
pools are currently drawn would increase the representation of people not
now included in pools. I believe instituting these two changes would go a
long way toward improving our jury selection system, though certainly not make
it perfect.
It is my understanding that the Judiciary Committee was unaware of the
Monroe County system and did not consider it during their review.
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Minutes of the Jury Selection Subcommittee
July 2 , 1992
Present : Ben Darden, Chuck Guttman, Jim Kerrigan , Irene Stein
Excused: Nick Celia, Marilyn Ray
1 . Chuck Guttman furnished the committee with a summary of the
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laws which govern the selection of jurors (see attached) . He
enclosed a copy of Article 16 of the Judicial Law which covered
this material .
2 . Jim Kerrigan furnished the committee with a description of the
existing jury selection procedures in Tompkins County (see
attached) .
3 . Ben Darden discussed with the committee some of the problems
relating to policies and procedural change in the long run .
4 . Marilyn Ray circulated her report in which she stated that
she would be receiving a report from the Judiciary Committee of
the Bar Association . She also raised in her material (see
attached) the notion of stratifying the jury selection lists so
that one stratum might be a minority neighborhood.
The committee discussed all this material . Chuck Guttman and Jim
Kerrigan will circulate before the next meeting their ideas About
what can be done in the short run to make the jury pools more
representative; Ben Darden will circulate his ideas about long-
range changes that should be considered. The next meeting will
be Friday, 12 : 15 at the Asiatic Restaurant , W. State Street .
JULY 17
JAMES M. KERRIGAN RcE vF0 ftt; o 1943
Attorney
200 East Buffalo Street
P. 0. Box 6434
Ithaca, New York 14851
607-272-1400
James M. Kerrigan
Richard M. Wallace
July 2, 1992
MEMO TO: Members of the Jury Selection Sub-committee,
Mayor's Task Force on Police-Minority Relations
FROM: James M. Kerrigan
SUBJECT: Existing Jury Selection Procedures
DATE: July 2, 1992
1. Please accept my apologies for having missed the
original meeting of the Committee. I promise that I will never
miss another meeting as long as the Committee schedules no
further meetings on the eve of my 50th birthday.
2. I may be late this evening since I have a couple of
Court appearances.
3. I have met with Nancy Joch, the County Court Clerk and
Tompkins County Jury Commissioner in regard to existing
procedures.
The computer lists are maintained in Elmira and Albany. The
sources of the lists are the most recent voter registration lists
available, a new one was sent within the last six to eight weeks
and that was probably a list effective as of 1992. In addition,
a computer tape is generated, I believe in Albany, with the
Department of Motor Vehicles. Relatively up-to-date lists are
used so that new names are added. However, the Department of
Motor Vehicles does not purge its lists very frequently if at
all. That's a partial explanation for the fact that occasionally
jurors who have passed away many years ago are called and a
partial explanation for the fact that on jury selection many
jurors indicate that they have not lived at the address provided
to the lawyers for the jurors for many years. In addition a New
York State Income Tax, Department of Taxation computer tape is
used which reflects taxpayers who file income taxes who indicate
Tompkins County as their county of residence. Occasionally,
people who volunteer are also added to the list although I am not
quite sure of the mechanics of this. When someone volunteers
they are supposed to be given a jury questionnaire.
The first step is to mail out substantial numbers of jury
questionnaires. I believe, but I am not sure, that these are
mailed from Albany. It appears that the response rate may be
significantly below 50%.
Upon the return of the jury questionnaire they are reviewed
for qualifications and if qualified are placed in what is
apparently a new computer tape of qualified jurors who have
completed the jury questionnaire.
It is this questionnaire, after being entered into the
computer, which generates the jury notification list.
In addition, apparently many jurors call the Jury
Commissioner's Office upon receipt of a Jury Summons requesting
to be excused. Many such applications are granted by deferring
jury service. Interestingly many students are treated as though
they were self-employed individuals and entitled not to serve.
The analysis is that many students between papers and exams, etc.
should not serve.
One additional comment that did come up related to the use
of jury selection and utility bills. Nancy indicated that
apparently Suffolk County attempted to use utility bills. They
found it was not particularly effective. They found that insofar
as apartment tenants are concerned that many utility bills are
maintained in the landlord's name since the landlord doesn't wish
to run the risk of having the power shut off and the pipes
freeze, etc. In addition apparently Suffolk's experience
indicated that the yield was not particularly significant. For
example, even in an apparently small percentage of Suffolk County
areas where utilities were in the tenant's name it was discovered
that there might be four adult residents of an apartment house
and the utility bill would have, of course, only be in one
person's name.
Please accept my apologies for the fact that this was not
circulated in advance as I had hoped. I would like to thank
Nancy Joch for a very cordial reception and complete willingness
to share in the appropriate information with the Committee.
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Meeting of Jury Selection Subcommittee
Minutes of Meeting of August 5 , 1992
Present : Ben Darden, Chuck Guttman, Irene Stein
Excused: Marilyn Ray
1 . Jim Kerrigan has resigned from the Committee ,
2 . The Committee finalized its recommendations . They will
consist of :
a . Adding to the lists of names used for jury
' selection, the names of NYSEG customers , Headstart and public
school systems parents and Public assistance/Food Stamp clients .
If any of the latter lists , are not legally available to the
public , making them available for this purpose will be addressed
below.
b . Whenever names are drawn from the total list (s) , the
list should be divided into two strata : one which will include
the names of all residents of streets in the election districts
which will compose the Second Ward of the City of Ithaca as of
the effective redistricting date , January 1 , 1993; the other, to
include all other county residents . Names should be drawn from
each stratum in proportion to its peracentage of total county
population . This will ensure that minorities 'are consistently ,
chosen in proportion to their percentage of County population .
3 . The procedures in relation to the jury questionnaire should
be changed so that all those who do not return the questionnaire
will be automatically placed on the jury list , and this should be
made clear on the questionnaire .
4 . Our State Legislators should be contacted to submit
legislation which will make these procedures mandatory across the
State . To the extent that any of the lists of names in 1 a . are
not public information, legislation should permit their being
made available for the purposes of jury selection .
Chuck will prepare a rough draft of the recommendations for the
final report ; Irene will write a paragraph on the sampling
recommendation; Ben will submit language for the
intgroduction/conclusion of the report .
The next meeting will be Wednesday , August 12 , 7 : 30 p .m. at
Chuck' s City Hall office .
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Cji 1
� II L iTIDI
CITY OF ITHACA
108 EAST GREEN STREET
ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850
OFFICE OF TELEPHONE: 274-6501
MAYOR CODE 607
December 2, 1992
Mr.William Seldin,Esq.
President,Tompkins County Bar Association
405 North Tioga Street
Ithaca NY 14850
Dear Mr. Seldin:
I thought this report would be of interest to you. Please circulate it to other Association
members as you think appropriate.
I would be interested in your reactions.
Please call me with any questions(272-3167).
Sincerely,
I e 1 '
Irene W. Stein
Chair,Jury Selection Subcommittee
Task Force on Police-Community Relations
IWS/ta
Report and Recommendations
of the Committee on Jury Selection
The Committee on Jury Selection has reviewed the law and
current practice regarding the preparation of the lists of
prospective jurors and the manner in which prospective jurors are
selected from those lists. The Committee sees several problems
that currently exist. As a result of these problems the pool at
a trial of prospective jurors does not adequately reflect a cross-;
section of the community.
The creation of a pool of prospective jurors is a multi-step
process. Originally a master list is created. This list currently
includes registered voters, motor vehicle lists, income tax payers .
and people who volunteer to be on jury lists. The Committee
believes that this original master list should be as inclusive as
possible and believes that at present a significant number of
people, and in particular, certain classes of the population ..
specifically lower income and/or minorities, are systematically
under-represented on this master list.
The Committee recommends that the original master list of
prospective jurors referred to in Section 506 of the Judiciary Law
be made up of not only the lists which are currently used but also
additional lists including but not limited to names of parents and
guardians of school children obtained from the school district;
names of students over the age of eighteen (18) obtained from the
school district and local colleges and universities; lists of
people paying utility bills; and such other lists as the
Commissioner of Jurors may be able to obtain. In particular, the
Commissioner of Jurors should also attempt to obtain a list of
individuals obtaining unemployment and social services benefits.
The next step in creating the pool of prospective jurors is
to mail out jury questionnaires . The Committee recommends that the
Jury Commissioner shall make sure that all persons on the master
list of prospective jurors is mailed a jury questionnaire.
Currently, anyone who does not return the questionnaire is
eliminated from the pool of prospective jurors. A problem is that
the response rate to the questionnaires is significantly below
fifty percent ( 50%) .
Section 509 of the Judiciary Law provides that the person to
whom the questionnaire is mailed shall complete and sign it and
return it to the Commissioner. The Committee recommends that the
questionnaire be sent with a covering letter emphasizing the legal
obligation of the person who receives the questionnaire to complete
it and return it.
The Commissioner of Jurors then prepares a jury notification
, list. Currently, anyone who does not return the questionnaire is
left off the jury notification list. The Committee recommends that
7 (Appendix B)
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the practice be reversed and that anyone who does not return the
qualification questionnaire instead of being left off the jury .
notification list is, instead, put on the jury notification list.
It is, of course, possible or probable that some of these
individuals would not be qualified jurors. The Committee does not
see this as an insurmountable problem. When a • jury is to be
selected persons are currently notified that they are to appear in
court. A procedure could be developed where people who have
returned the qualification questionnaire are directed to appear in
court shortly before the court session and individuals who have not
previously filled out the qualification questionnaire and whose
names are selected from the expanded jury notification list could
be summoned to appear an earlier time that day. The Commissioner
would then examine those persons to see if they qualify. If they
do not, they would be sent home. If they qualified, they would
remain in court to possibly be selected on a jury.
The Committee believes that certain classes of the population,
specifically lower income and/or minorities have systematically
been excluded from the jury system. In particular, black residents
are under-represented in the pool of jurors. The Committee
recommends that in order to insure that black residents be included
in the pool in proportion to their percentage of the County
population, the lists of jurors called should be divided into two
strata, one stratum to consist of all those living at the addresses
within the election districts of the Second Ward of the City of
Ithaca as of January 1, 1993; the other stratum being all those at
all remaining addresses. Names should be drawn from these two
strata in proportion to their fraction of the total county
population. Since a significant portion of the County' s black
population resides in the aforementioned Second Ward election
district, selection from the stratum in proportion to its
percentage of the total County population is the best way to insure
that the drawn pool will consistently contain names of black
residents in proportion to their percentage of the population.
This procedure will have to be reviewed and-modified after receipt
of each census report. The Committee further recommends that an
analogous procedure should be established and used for the
selection of juries in the City of Ithaca.
Pursuant to Section 517 of the Judiciary Law, the Commissioner
of Jurors has the discretion, on the application of a prospective
juror who has been summoned to attend, to excuse that juror from
jury service or to postpone the time of jury service. The
Commissioner of Jurors is currently given that authority provided
in Section 517 . However, it is unclear whether this authority is
administered under specific guidelines or standards . The Committee
recommends that specific written standards and guidelines be
developed under which the Commissioner of Jurors would exercise her
authority pursuant to Section 517 to grant excuses or postponements
to jurors.
S (_Appendix B)
The Committee further recommends that there be established a
program of public education regarding the importance of service on
juries and how the jury system works.
The Committee believes that all the above recommendations
could be put in place in a relatively short period of time without
additional authority from the federal or state governments. The
Committee believes that additional steps should be taken which we
realize will require state and federal action. In particular, the
Committee recommends:
1. That the procedures set forth above be set into state law
as legal requirements; and,
2. That appropriate legislation be passed to provide that
lists of individuals receiving unemployment benefits, social
services and medicaid benefits be made available to the
Commissioner of Jurors for use by the Commissioner of Jurors in
selecting the lists of prospective jurors.
August 13 , 1992
9 (:Appendix B