NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1959 SESSION

CHAPTER 711

SENATE BILL 438

AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE APPOINTMENT OF A JURY COMMISSIONER FOR BEAUFORT COUNTY, TO REGULATE THE PREPARATION OF JURY ROLLS AND JURY SCROLLS, AND TO REGULATE THE DRAWING OF JURY AND GRAND JURY PANELS IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF BEAUFORT COUNTY.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1. The Resident Judge of the Second Judicial District of the Superior Court of North Carolina is authorized and empowered to appoint some competent and discreet person as Jury Commissioner of Beaufort County, said position to be deemed a commission for a special purpose and not a public office. Said commissioner shall perform the duties hereinafter designated until removed from said position by said judge or until he resigns. Any vacancy in said position may likewise be filled by said Resident Judge of the Second Judicial District of the Superior Court of North Carolina. Said judge, by appropriate order, shall, from time to time, fix the amount of reasonable compensation to be paid said jury commissioner for performing the duties of said position, which amount shall be paid to said jury commissioner from the general funds of Beaufort County by the treasurer or accountant of said county.

Sec. 2. Within a reasonable time after the ratification of this Act and within such period as is practicable, said jury commissioner, after thorough investigation, shall prepare and lay before said Resident Judge of the Second Judicial District a list of the residents of Beaufort County whom said commissioner affirmatively finds to possess those qualifications enumerated in G. S. 9-1, as prospective jurors in the Superior Court of Beaufort County for the period ending June 30, 1962. Not later than June 30th of each even year thereafter, said commissioner shall likewise prepare and lay before said judge a list of the residents of Beaufort County as prospective jurors in the Superior Courts of Beaufort County whom said commissioner affirmatively finds to possess those qualifications enumerated in G. S. 9-1. There shall be exempt from jury duty, and said commissioner shall not include in said lists, those persons designated by G. S. 9-19.

Sec. 3. Upon receipt of said list of prospective jurors, the resident judge of said district shall examine the same to ascertain if the laws of North Carolina have been complied with in the preparation of said list. If any irregularity is found in said list or in its preparation, said judge shall return the same to said commissioner with his reasons noted thereon and said commissioner shall thereupon correct said irregularities. When said judge affirmatively finds said list of prospective jurors to have been prepared in conformity with the laws of North Carolina, he shall approve the same and endorse thereon "Approved Jury Roll of the Superior Court of Beaufort County for the Period Ending June 30, 19_____" and shall sign said approval and return said jury roll to the Jury Commissioner of Beaufort County.

Sec. 4. Said jury commissioner shall file said jury roll in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Beaufort County. Said commissioner shall endeavor to keep said jury roll currently correct by noting opposite the appropriate name those persons who, since the preparation of said list, have died, or who have removed from Beaufort County, or who have otherwise become disqualified for jury duty.

Sec. 5. Said jury commissioner, for his own information in anticipating and preparing future jury lists, shall endeavor to keep in his files but not as a part of the approved jury roll, a current list of those persons becoming twenty-one years of age residing in Beaufort County, or adult persons moving into Beaufort County, and meeting the qualifications enumerated in G. S. 9-1. The list of prospective jurors, as distinguished from the approved jury roll, shall not be deemed a public record.

Sec. 6. Upon receipt of the approved jury roll from said judge, the jury commissioner shall prepare a scroll for each name appearing on said approved jury roll, listing on said scroll the name, age, sex and address of said juror. After the preparation of said scrolls, said jury commissioner, in the presence of the Clerk of the Superior Court, Register of Deeds, and Sheriff of Beaufort County, shall empty and destroy the contents of the jury boxes of Beaufort County and shall place in Jury Box No. 1 of said county the scrolls so prepared by him from the approved jury roll of said county for the then current period. The Clerk of the Superior Court of Beaufort County shall be the custodian of the jury boxes of said county.

Sec. 7. Not later than twenty (20) days before the convening of each week of the Superior Court of Beaufort County, the Resident Judge of the Second Judicial District of the Superior Court of North Carolina, after investigation by him concerning the jury needs for said court, shall advise the Clerk of the Superior Court of Beaufort County to draw a designated number of scrolls from Jury Box No. 1 as the jury panel for said week of court. Said clerk shall thereupon, in the presence of the sheriff and register of deeds of said county, cause a child under the age of ten (10) years to draw from Jury Box No. 1 the designated number of scrolls, and shall certify the list of names so drawn to the Sheriff of Beaufort County. The sheriff of said county shall cause the persons so certified to him to be summoned as jurors for the week of the Superior Court of Beaufort County for the week so designated. After the drawing of said scrolls from Jury Box No. 1 by said child, the scrolls so drawn shall be returned by said Clerk of the Superior Court to Jury Box No. 2. If at any time the scrolls in Jury Box No. 1 shall be exhausted, the drawing of needed scrolls shall continue from Jury Box No. 2 after said box has been well shaken.

Nothing contained in this Section shall prohibit any judge presiding over the Superior Court of Beaufort County at any term of said court from directing the drawing of any special panel or venire, or any additional regular or talis jurors, if he finds that such need exists.

In the event any judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina, while presiding over the courts of another county of the State, shall direct the drawing of a special venire from Beaufort County, such venire shall be drawn in the same manner as is herein provided for the drawing of a regular panel for Beaufort County.

If, at the time of the drawing of any panel or venire, regular or special, the Clerk of the Superior Court, or the register of deeds, or the sheriff of said county is ill or absent from said county, or for other reason unable to attend said drawing, his or her assistant or chief deputy shall attend and act in his or her absence.

Sec. 8. At the first term of criminal court in the Superior Court of Beaufort County following the ratification of this Act and after the placing of the scrolls in Jury Box No. 1 by said jury commissioner, as provided by Section 6 of this Act, the judge presiding at said term shall cause eighteen (18) names to be drawn, in the manner now provided by law, as a grand jury in the Superior Court of Beaufort County. The first nine (9) names so drawn shall serve as grand jurors until the first criminal term of said court next after the ensuing January 1, and until their successors are drawn and sworn. The other nine (9) names so drawn shall serve as grand jurors in said court until the first criminal term of said court next after the ensuing July 1, and until their successors are drawn and sworn. Thereafter, at the first term of said court for the trial of criminal cases after July 1st and January 1st of each year, the judge then presiding over said Superior Court of Beaufort County shall cause nine (9) names to be drawn from the jury panel for said term in the manner provided by law, and the persons so drawn shall be sworn and shall serve as grand jurors in the Superior Court of Beaufort County for the twelve (12) months following their drawing, and until their successors are drawn and sworn.

At each term of said court when new grand jurors are drawn, the presiding judge shall designate some member from said body as foreman of the grand jury and such designated person shall be sworn as foreman of the grand jury and shall serve in that capacity until a new foreman is designated and sworn as such. At any criminal term of said Superior Court of Beaufort County, when it appears to the presiding judge that any member of the grand jury has died, removed from the county, or otherwise become ineligible to serve on said grand jury since the last criminal term of said court, said presiding judge may cause another name to be drawn from the panel, in the manner provided by law, to fill the unexpired period of such absent grand juror, and the person so drawn shall be sworn as a member of said grand jury for said unexpired period.

Sec. 9. All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 10. This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 3rd day of June, 1959.