NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1981 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 720

HOUSE BILL 915

 

 

AN ACT TO SUBSTITUTE LISTS OF LICENSED DRIVERS FOR TAXPAYERS AS A SOURCE OF NAMES FOR JURY LISTS.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1. G.S. 9-2 is rewritten to read as follows:

"§ 9-2. Preparation of jury list; sources of names. - (a) It shall be the duty of the jury commission beginning July I, 1981, (and each biennium thereafter) to prepare a list of prospective jurors qualified under this Chapter to serve in the biennium beginning January 1, 1982, (and each biennium thereafter).

(b)        In preparing the list, the jury commission shall use the voter registration records of the county. The commission may use fewer than all the names from the voter list if it uses a random method of selection. The commission may use other sources of names deemed by it to be reliable.

(c)        Effective July 1, 1983, the list of licensed drivers residing in each county, as supplied to the county by the Division of Motor Vehicles pursuant to G.S. 20-43.4, shall also be required as a source of names for use by the commission in preparing the jury list.

(d)        When more than one source is used to prepare the jury list the jury commission shall take randomly a sample of names from the list of registered voters and each additional source used. The same percentage of names must be selected from each list. The names selected from the voter registration list shall be compared with the entire list of names from the second source. Duplicate names shall be removed from the voter registration sample, and the remaining names shall then be combined with the sample of names selected from the second source to form the jury list. If more than two source lists are used, the same procedure must be used to remove duplicates.

(e)        As an alternative to the procedure set forth in subsection (d), the jury commission may merge the entire list of names of each source used, remove the duplicate names, and randomly select the desired number of names to form the jury list.

(f)         The jury list shall contain not less than one and one-quarter times and not more than three times as many names as were drawn for jury duty in all courts in the county during the previous biennium, but in no event shall the list include fewer than 500 names, except that in counties in which a different panel of jurors is selected for each day of the week, there is no limit to the number of names that may be placed on the jury list.

(g)        The custodian of the appropriate election registration records in each county shall cooperate with the jury commission in its duty of compiling the list required by this section.

(h)        As used in this section 'random' or 'randomly' refers to a method of selection that results in each name on a list having an equal opportunity to be selected."

Sec. 2. Article 3 of Chapter 20 of the General Statutes is amended to add the following new section:

"§ 20-43.4. Current list of licensed drivers to be provided to jury commissions. - The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles shall provide to each county jury commission an alphabetical list of all persons that he has determined are residents of the county, 18 years of age or older, and licensed to drive a motor vehicle as of July 1, 1983, and as of July 1 of each biennium thereafter. The list shall include those persons whose license to drive has been suspended, and those former licensees whose license has been cancelled. The list shall contain the address and zip code of each driver, plus his date of birth and sex, and may be in either printed or computerized form, as requested by each county."

Sec. 3. G.S. 9-1 is amended in line one by deleting "October" and inserting in lieu thereof "July".

Sec. 4. This act shall become effective July 1, 1981.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 29th day of June, 1981.