Senate Bill No. 62
(By Senator Lucht)
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[Introduced February 16, 1993; referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eight, article one, chapter
fifty-two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to notice to
certain caretakers when called to jury duty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eight, article one, chapter fifty-two of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. PETIT JURIES.
§52-1-8. Disqualification from jury service.
(a) The court, upon request of the jury commission or a
prospective juror or on its own initiative, shall determine on
the basis of information provided on the juror qualification form
or interview with the prospective juror or other competent
evidence whether the prospective juror is disqualified for jury
service. The clerk shall enter this determination in the space
provided on the juror qualification form and on the alphabeticallists of names drawn from the jury wheel or jury box.
(b) A prospective juror is disqualified to serve on a jury
if the prospective juror:
(1) Is not a citizen of the United States, at least eighteen
years old and a resident of the county;
(2) Is unable to read, speak and understand the English
language. For the purposes of this section, the requirement of
speaking and understanding the English language is met by the
ability to communicate in American sign language or signed
English;
(3) Is incapable, by reason of substantial physical or
mental disability, of rendering satisfactory jury service; but a
person claiming this disqualification may be required to submit
a physician's certificate as to the disability and the certifying
physician is subject to inquiry by the court at its discretion;
(4) Has, within the preceding two years, been summoned to
serve as a petit juror, grand juror or magistrate court juror,
and has actually attended sessions of the magistrate or circuit
court and been compensated as a juror pursuant to the provisions
of section twenty-one of this article, section thirteen, article
two of this chapter, or pursuant to an 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;
(5) Has lost the right to vote because of a criminal
conviction; or
(6) Has been convicted of perjury, false swearing or other
infamous offense.
(c) A prospective juror sixty-five years of age or older is
not disqualified from serving, but shall be excused from service
by the court upon the juror's request.
(d) A prospective grand juror is disqualified to serve on a
grand jury if the prospective grand juror is an officeholder
under the laws of the United States or of this state except that
the term "officeholder" does not include notaries public.
(e) A person who is physically disabled and can render
competent service with reasonable accommodation shall not be
ineligible to act as juror or be dismissed from a jury panel on
the basis of disability alone:
Provided, That the circuit judge
shall, upon motion by either party or upon his or her own motion,
disqualify a disabled juror if the circuit judge finds that the
nature of potential evidence in the case including, but not
limited to, the type or volume of exhibits or the disabled
juror's ability to evaluate a witness or witnesses, unduly
inhibits the disabled juror's ability to evaluate the potential
evidence. For purposes of this section:
(1) Reasonable accommodation includes, but is not limited
to, certified interpreters for the hearing impaired,
spokespersons for the speech impaired and readers for the
visually impaired.
(2) The court shall administer an oath or affirmation to any
person present to facilitate communication for a disabled juror. The substance of such oath or affirmation shall be that any
person present as an accommodation to a disabled juror will not
deliberate on his or her own behalf, although present throughout
the proceedings, but act only to accurately communicate for and
to the disabled juror.
(f) Nothing in this article shall be construed so as to
limit in any way a party's right to preemptory strikes in civil
or criminal actions.
(g) A prospective juror who provides information which
indicates that the prospective juror is the primary caretaker of
a child or a dependent adult shall be provided at least two weeks
notice of jury duty and shall be informed insofar as is possible
the approximate length of jury service the prospective juror will
serve. If it is not reasonable to accommodate a prospective
juror who is the primary caretaker of a child or a dependent
adult, the prospective juror shall be excused from jury duty.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide adequate
notice to certain prospective jurors who are the primary
caretakers of children or dependent adults concerning length of
jury duty. The bill also provides that if adequate accommodation
is not possible to give notice to the prospective juror, the
juror will be excused from jury duty.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.