August 10, 2009

New Law Eliminates Outdated Positions

Cutting jury commissioners with saves taxpayers $15,000

WILMINGTON – Keeping his commitment to reduce the size of state government, Governor Jack Markell recently signed legislation that eliminates jury commissioners from the state’s court system.  Cutting these six positions will save the state $15,000 per year in payroll expenses.

“To meet the challenges facing Delaware, we must make government smaller and more effective,” Markell said. “Replacing jury commissioners with a computerized process is a more cost-effective way of fairly selecting juries.”

Jury commissioners used to be responsible for insuring that a random and fair cross-section of Delawareans was called for jury service.  However, this work is now done by a computerized process handled by the staff in the Superior Court. The Court's computerized process is designed to insure that jury pools are randomly selected and reflect Delaware's population.
 
“House Bill 151 will save the State $15,000 in unnecessary expense,” said Superior Court President Judge James T. Vaughn Jr. “Through the Court’s computerized jury selection process, the court staff generates a random selection of jurors and ensures Delawareans get a jury of their peers.”

“Jury commissioners had their place in our justice system years ago to ensure fairness in the jury pool, but that day long since has passed,” said Rep. Melanie George Marshall, D-Bear, who sponsored HB 151. “Jury selection today is largely computerized and done by Superior Court staff, leaving the jury commissioner system completely outdated. Doing away with this position will save the state money, which is something we must continue doing – looking at all aspects of our government for any way we can save the taxpayers, no matter how small the amount.”