§ 16-32-103 — Master list

Arkansas § 16-32-103

• Jurisdiction: Arkansas
• Title: 16

Text

(a) During the month of November or December of each year, the prospective jurors for the following calendar year shall be selected from among the current list of registered voters of the applicable district or county in the following manner: (1) The circuit judge, in the presence of the circuit clerk, shall select at random a number between one (1) and one hundred (100), inclusive, which shall be the starting number, and the circuit court shall then select the person whose name appears on the current voter registration list in that numerical position, counting sequentially from the first name on the list; (2) The circuit clerk shall then select the one hundredth voter registrant appearing on the list after the starting number. As an example, if the starting number is sixty-seven (67), which is the first selection, the second selection would be the one hundred sixty-seventh registered voter, the third selection would be the two hundred sixty-seventh registered voter, and so forth until the current registered voter list is exhausted; and (3) The circuit judge and the circuit clerk shall then repeat the random selection process until the number of jurors set out in this subsection have been selected. (b) The number of persons to be selected shall be based upon the number of qualified registered voters in the appropriate district or county as reflected by the current list of registered voters provided by the county clerk under legal requirements and, unless a larger number is designated by the circuit judge, the minimum number selected shall be as follows: Number of Registered Voters Minimum Number of Prospective Petit Jurors Minimum Number of Prospective Grand Jurors 90,000 or more 1,200 120 16,000 to 89,999 1,000 100 10,000 to 15,999 800 90 6,000 to 9,999 600 75 2,000 to 5,999 500 75 0 to 1,999 250 or 50% of the registered voters, whichever is smaller (c) (1) After the list of prospective jurors has been submitted by the circuit clerk, the circuit judge may, in the exercise of his or her discretion, authorize clerical assistance in preparing the alphabetized master list and separate cards, chips, disks, or other appropriate means of including the names and addresses of the prospective jurors in the wheel or box. (2) The expense of this clerical help shall be paid by the county as an expense of the administration of justice. (3) Clerical employees shall take the following oath: "I will not make known to anyone the names of the prospective jurors who have been selected and I will not, directly or indirectly, converse with anyone selected as a juror concerning the merits of any proceeding pending or likely to come before the grand jury or court until after the case is tried or otherwise finally disposed of." (d) Subsections (a)-(c) of this section shall be applicable to all circuit courts and counties within the state that are not using a computerized random jury selection process. (e) (1) (A) All circuit clerks who maintain on computers voter registration lists or the enhanced list of prospective jurors authorized by § 16-32-302 , whether in-house or contracted, may utilize the computers and associated equipment for the purpose of selecting jury panels from the voter registration lists or the enhanced list of prospective jurors instead of compiling a master list under subsections (a)-(c) of this section if the computer program is capable of randomly selecting names for the jury panels from the voter registration lists or enhanced list of prospective jurors. (B) If the computer program is not capable of randomly selecting names for the jury panels from the voter registration lists or enhanced list of prospective jurors, the clerks may use the computers and associated equipment for the purpose of creating the master list under subsections (a)-(c) of this section. (2) The master list of jurors' names and addresses shall not be available for public inspection, publication, or copying, but it may be examined in the presence of the circuit judge by litigants or their attorneys who desire to verify that names drawn from the wheel or box were placed there in the manner provided in this act by the commissioners. (3) (A) In counties where jury selection is conducted by a computerized random process, the source list of potential jurors' names and addresses shall not be available for public inspection, publication, or copying. (B) The source list may be examined in the presence of the circuit judge by litigants or their attorneys who desire to verify that names randomly selected by computer were selected from the list.

Legislative History

Acts 1969, No. 568, § 15; 1975, No. 485, § 2; 1979, No. 816, §§ 1, 2; 1981, No. 687, § 1; 1985, No. 1066, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, §§ 39-205.1, 39-205.1n, 39-205.2, 39-207; Acts 2005, No. 87, § 2.