Jury Duty

Not much came out of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille's visit to the Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon this week except for the announcement that the state's 67 counties will be able to tap into much bigger jury lists.

Your chances of getting out of jury duty just got a whole lot worse.

I know a guy who won't vote because he was afraid they'd pick his name for jury duty from the voter registration rolls.

Castille said starting in the fall, the state court system will compile a statewide master list of prospective jurors from voting records, tax records, motor-vehicle data and welfare records.

"If you vote, pay taxes, drive or receive welfare or food stamps, your name will be on that list," Castille said.

That includes just about everybody, doesn't it? That means the chances of bumping into each other in a courtroom just became more likely.

Each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties used their own system of compiling names of potential jurors and the pool was limited to the size of the county's list (typically voter registration rolls or driver's license lists.

Now counties will have access to the state's master jury list as well as any other lists counties want to use.

Diversity on juries is a good concept, after all, the Constitution guarantees every citizen a trial by a jury of his or her peers. But if you've ever wasted a day sitting around waiting to be picked for a jury, you know what a hassle it can be.

Now, if the state could only get around to increase the nominal pay jurors receive, maybe more people would be willing to do their civic duty, especially in these tough economic times.