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2007 House Bill 4859 (Use tax records to establish geographically proportionate jury pools ) (House Roll Call 488)

Passed in the House (59 to 49) on June 10, 2008. [History, Amendments & Comments]

The vote was 59 in favor, 49 opposed, and 2 not voting
(House Roll Call 488 at House Journal 56)

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Vote
Support Support
Oppose Oppose
Not Voting Not Voting
 Undecided
Legislators (Democrat)
96496%
1991%
1991%
58 total votes
Legislators (Republican)
5955%
92892%
1991%
52 total votes

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The following legislators supported 2007 House Bill 4859 (Use tax records to establish geographically proportionate jury pools ):

Accavitti (D) Angerer (D) Bauer (D) Bennett (D) Bieda (D) Brown (D)
Byrnes (D) Byrum (D) Clack (D) Clemente (D) Condino (D) Constan (D)
Corriveau (D) Coulouris (D) Cushingberry (D) Dean (D) Dillon (D) Donigan (D)
Ebli (D) Espinoza (D) Farrah (D) Gaffney (R) Gillard (D) Gonzales (D)
Griffin (D) Hammel (D) Hammon (D) Hood (D) Hopgood (D) Jackson (D)
Johnson (D) Jones, Rick (R) Jones, Robert (D) Lahti (D) Law, Kathleen (D) LeBlanc (D)
Leland (D) Lemmons (D) Lindberg (D) Mayes (D) McDowell (D) Meadows (D)
Meisner (D) Melton (D) Miller (D) Polidori (D) Rocca (R) Sak (D)
Scott (D) Sheltrown (D) Simpson (D) Smith, Alma (D) Smith, Virgil (D) Spade (D)
Tobocman (D) Vagnozzi (D) Valentine (D) Warren (D) Young (D)  

The following legislators opposed 2007 House Bill 4859 (Use tax records to establish geographically proportionate jury pools ):

Acciavatti (R) Agema (R) Amos (R) Ball (R) Booher (R) Brandenburg (R)
Calley (R) Casperson (R) Caswell (R) Caul (R) DeRoche (R) Elsenheimer (R)
Emmons (R) Garfield (R) Green (R) Hansen (R) Hildenbrand (R) Hoogendyk (R)
Horn (R) Huizenga (R) Hune (R) Knollenberg (R) LaJoy (R) Law, David (R)
Marleau (R) Meekhof (R) Meltzer (R) Moolenaar (R) Moore (R) Moss (R)
Nitz (R) Nofs (R) Opsommer (R) Palmer (R) Palsrok (R) Pastor (R)
Pavlov (R) Pearce (R) Proos (R) Robertson (R) Schuitmaker (R) Shaffer (R)
Sheen (R) Stahl (R) Stakoe (R) Steil (R) Walker (R) Wenke (R)
Wojno (D)      

The following legislators did not vote on 2007 House Bill 4859 (Use tax records to establish geographically proportionate jury pools ):

Cheeks (D) Ward (R)

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Most Recent Comments

1) if you want jury selection [by Anonymous Citizen on June 28, 2007]
based on geographical area, then give up racial equality, because if there are no people of the defendants race living in the area, then, in your opinion, he cannot get a fair trial.

juries are pulled from the only jury pool there is, the people.

jury duty is a real pain, but it's a DUTY.

some people have reccomended that the state hire PROFESSIONAL JURIES, and this idea has gotten some traction in some jurisdictions around the country, but for the most part, lawyers on both sides are against it.

what i see here is a failure to come to grips with the simple fact that you are upset because a group of people (jurors) all agree that the defendant sitting before them is guilty.

now, if the people in your neck of the woods are liable to do that on a regular basis, no matter who is chosen, then either

1. the guy sitting in the defendant's chair has been proven guilty by the prosecutor beyond a reasonable doubt, and more importantly, beyond the ability of his defense attorney to defend against the charges.

or...

2. everybody in your neck of the woods, and i do mean EVERYBODY just enjoys sending innocent people to jail for no reason. no only that, the prosecutors, police, judges, jailors, everybody, is in on it. (that would include you)

now, which is it?
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2) I can't. [by Anonymous Citizen on June 27, 2007]
They're both right.

The jurors are suppposed to be randomly selected, not "picked"; only gross conflicts of interest such as kinfolk are supposed to get weeded out. That's the way it's worked in Anglo-Saxon common law since the ninth century, until now. Today, the picking process weeds out those informed jurors who will not promise to consider only the facts as the judge (a state employee) gives them, leaving only the easily-manipilated chowder-heads to fumble through the administration of justice. And so tyranny grinds onward.
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3) Additional note [by Mike Hignite on June 26, 2007]
Also, juries should be selected from citizens based on their home residence. They should be a simple, random pool and only challenged for cause, such as a relationship with the plaintiff or defendant, or an inability to discharge the duties (medical incapacity).

Endless challenges allow the legal process to be gamed and juries to be screened for a particular outcome. That has nothing to do with justice.
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