The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1873-01-16
The Array. of Jurors.

On Tuesday, JANUARY 18th, the jurors 10
serve at the. rsgular tenn. of Court on the
goth inst. were drawn and the venlre
tu,ned over to the sheriff. We desire to
make some comments upon the persons
drawn and the manner of drawing, winch
are not intended in the spirit of capnous-
ness, but as means of calling the attention
of the Board of Jury Commissioners to GER
tain facts" which they have apparently over
BOXED, and Of the community, to subject
in which they are all. more or less directly
Interested: We sec no objection, be 1t
known, to c9lored men serving upon the Ju-
ry if they are competent and lave SUCH
other qualifications as the law requires we
have the same objection to an incompetent
White man serving on on jury, as we would
10 an iincomPetent colored man .,,l q.
In our local column, we present the We;
rire as delivered to the Sheriff Tor service
The Jist shows that 81. seventeen Grand Ju-
rors drawn, twelve are colored and Eve whites,
one of thsIwhites lyingin Sumter county
and, ,rsAerefare not liable to duty hers'as a
juror. OF petit jurors, thirty-three' twenty
ssveu -of.whom are colored and six whites,
or including bothslists, thirtynine coiored
men and nine whites, excluding j: L: Y ates,
who, as above Stated, lives in Sumter county
OF those drawn, one colored man has served
for two 5 successive years on the Grand Jury,
to- wit: 1S7O-'71, and twelve others have
served from one I'd two terms since, 1862
Some have SCI served 50 often that their faces
have grown perfectly familiar, ,::and and they
wsopld s not, think that Court was properly Or
ganized unless they were on the jury. 'r'rla-
Section 3 of the Act of 1874 requires the
Board of Jury Commissioners in iJannary
Of, each year ''to prepare a list of such in
habitants of their respective counties as
they regard as ieeR qndhfa' to sarve as ju-
rors, being persons Of good moral character,
of sound judgment and free from all legal
esceptioils,1 which list shah include not less
than 'oone from every twenty voters, nor
more than one from every ten voters. VI
this list the names shall be written of each
on a separate ballot and dropped into a box
folded up, whence they are drawn, until the
venire is complete.
To US, ,-the.proper way would be, 1t seems
to select from the poll lists, and equal num-
ber of wlfitc and coSNd men, who are 'oel'
qualified to serve as jhsors, and from such
IisttS draw,the jiate&s 81 however % those
in Office ,s4oula conceive the idea that the
whites are not entitled to such large repre-
sentation on the juries,- then let them select
tro colored to one, white, and, draw from 9
list 50 made up. Bitkes of.ihese ways would
be preferable to such an array as the present
The representation at this term will be four
rolored to one white. Surely, white men
are rs much conc, rned in the administers
ton Of justice by juries as colOred men are
Most assuredy the law never contemplated
that the whites should be almost entirely ox-
cluded from participation in serving+on Jn-
RIGS. and the proportion of colored to white
voters is as two to one. The propriety Of this
arrangement is too evident to require argu
ment.r If the Jurors wore selected accord
ingly to the law above citGd, the Board of
jury Commissioners could not fail to choose
proper. men, for the Jaw requires them to
know the persons selectedand their qualihca-
tions, otherwise they would not be able to
say .that the jurors we're men of good moral
character snd possessed sound Judgment
In regafd to this present array of Jurors we
have heard complaints made by two promi-
nent colqred men Of this town, who not on
ly say that the juries are mentally inferior
to those hitherto drawn, but also that there
are several mcn who, are really Incompetent
to decide judiciously any, even the simplest
cases, -. .......,.. =.
We sincerely hope. that hereafter there
may. he, no. grounds for complaint either in
the persons or the manner of drawing the
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