§ 52-1-6 — Jury wheel or jury box; random selection of names from master list for jury wheel or jury box

(a) At the direction of the circuit court, the clerk for each county shall maintain a jury wheel or jury box, into which shall be placed the names or identifying numbers of prospective jurors taken from the master list. The choice of employing a jury wheel or jury box shall be at the discretion of the circuit court or the chief judge thereof.

(b) In counties having a population of less than fifteen thousand persons according to the last available census, the jury wheel or jury box shall include at least two hundred names; in counties having a population of at least fifteen thousand but less than fifty thousand, at least four hundred names; a population of at least fifty thousand but less than ninety thousand, at least eight hundred names; and a population of ninety thousand or more, at least one thousand six hundred names. From time to time a larger or additional number may be ordered by the circuit court to be placed in the jury wheel or jury box. The clerk shall take measures to ensure that a sufficient number of additional jurors are drawn from time to time so that the jury wheel or jury box is refilled and additional jurors may be drawn therefrom. In October of each even-numbered year, or at such other time as the court may direct, the clerk shall remove from the jury box or jury wheel the names of all persons who have, within the preceding two years, been summoned to serve as petit jurors, grand jurors or magistrate court jurors, and who have actually attended sessions of the magistrate or circuit court and been reimbursed for their expenses as jurors pursuant to the provisions of section twenty-one of this article, section thirteen, article two of this chapter, or under any applicable rule or regulation of the Supreme Court of Appeals promulgated pursuant to the provisions of section eight, article five, chapter fifty of this code.

(c) The names or identifying numbers of prospective jurors to be placed in the jury wheel or jury box shall be selected by the clerk at random from the master list in the following manner: The total number of names on the master list shall be divided by the number of names to be placed in or added to the jury wheel or jury box and the whole number next greater than the quotient shall be the "key number", except that the key number shall never be less than two. A "starting number" for making the selection shall then be determined by a random method from the numbers from one to the key number, both inclusive. The required number of names shall then be selected from the master list by taking in order the first name on the master list corresponding to the starting number and then successively the names appearing in the master list at intervals equal to the key number, recommencing if necessary at the start of the list until the required number of names has been selected. Upon recommencing at the start of the list, or if additional names are subsequently to be selected for the jury wheel or jury box, names previously selected from the master list shall be disregarded in selecting the additional names. The clerk is not required to, but may, use an electronic or mechanical system or device in carrying out its duties. (For example, assume a county with a master list of eight thousand nine hundred eighty names, a population of less than fifteen thousand and a desired jury box or wheel containing two hundred names. Eight thousand nine hundred eighty names divided by two hundred is forty-four and nine-tenths percent. The next whole number is forty-five. The clerk would take every forty-fifth name on the list, using a random starting number between one and forty-five.)

Legislative History

1993 Reg. Sess., SB358; 1988 Reg. Sess., SB331; 1986 Reg. Sess., HB1214