Kathrine Brauer
Jury Commissioner, Pima County Superior Court
110 W. Congress
Tucson, AZ 85701
[email protected] As the Jury Commissioner for the Arizona Superior Court in Pima County, I oppose proposed rule petition R-09-0016, which would prohibit court employees from serving as jurors in the court in which they work and would require the Jury Commissioner to direct such court employees to serve in a different court within the jurisdiction. Statutes and rules of procedure already exist to deal with prospective jurors who may be biased. In addition, Jury Commissioners are not always able to merely “direct” prospective jurors to serve in a court other than the court to which they were summoned.
A.R.S. 21-211 specifically provides that a person shall be disqualified to serve as a juror if the person is biased or prejudiced in favor of or against either of the parties. Arizona rules of civil and criminal procedure provide a process for determining whether a particular person is biased. In addition, during voir dire attorneys are able to ask questions of prospective jurors if the attorney has any concerns about a person’s ability to serve as a fair and impartial juror.
The requirement that the Jury Commissioner direct court employees to serve in a different court is overly burdensome. It would require jury commissioners to identify and track court employees and maybe make costly technological changes. Jury Commissioners would have to devise a way to identify court employees in advance of their jury service and then change their court location. This could require costly changes to the qualification questionnaires sent to jurors. Most courts use jury management software to summon jurors. Transferring a juror from one court to another after they have been summoned is not a normal practice and would require most courts to spend money to change the software programs to accomplish this.
The proposed rule is also overly broad in that it covers all court employees. Many court employees do not have any direct contact with attorneys or individual cases and so have no more information about individual defendants than any other member of the public. Jury pools should be as inclusive and representative as possible of the court’s jurisdiction. Court employees are members of the community and should be included in the prospective jury pool. If they do happen to know the defendant, or anything about a specific case, current laws and rules are in place to ensure that biased jurors are excused during voir dire.