New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-03
ABUSES IN DRAWING JURORS.
MORE LIGHT ON IRREGULARITIES.

MORE LIGHT ON IRREGULARITIES.
FORMER DfPUTY's EXPERIENCE ToLD-JuDGEs
INDIFFERENT, OTHER OFFICIALS NEGLIGENT
AND DRAWINGS OF $500 JURORS A MONTH
MADE BY IRRESPONSIBLE STANDARDIZATION
sUBPGNA-sERvERs COMBINE TO BLACkMAiL-
DEPUTY sHERIFFs DISMISSED FOR FRAUD
former CITY official whose duties required HIM 10
he Thoroughly acquainted with, and occasionally to
take part in the drawing Of jurors for the several
courts of tins county, made some interesting state
ments TO TRIBUNE reporter day or two ago as W
the actual workings of the jury law and the POSI-
bilty of fraud under the most honest admlnls'ra-
ton by the various heads Of the departments au-
thorized to perform this duty Some OF his s'a,e-
ments have already been given in other forms ny
other informants of The TRIBUNE. and are mere
omitted, but others were so singular as 10 MAKE
them worth reproduction in illustration OF the
abuses of the existing system. This man, though
not connected with the Commissioner OF jurors
office. often assisted at the drawing of panels Tor
the various courts
THE lists of persons liable to jury duty" he sald'
in explanation of the system, are prepared In the
Office Of the Commissioner of Jurors chiefly from
the City Directory, and also from INC
previous years enrolment. As soon as
the Directory is published In June
of each wear it is scanned for the names OF al
adult male residents The Commissioner mas uhlli
October 1 TO complete and to correct the llst ne
makes up This is done by what is called enroll
ment' A notice is sent TO each man on the iis' W
appear-and the order is imperative and must DC
obeyed under a penalty payable 10 he commission
Grand show cause why he should not be placed on
the list of liable jurors. His name is already there'
and il is very difficult costly thing 10 get IL
of again. Legal excuses are first heard. They are
non-citizenship inability to understand English,
non possession of $3.50 worth of property Deafness
illness insanity and mfrmity, and professional
men and public officers. etc, are also exempt"
"Of course legal excuse at once relieves man
from being again summoned"
"Of course it does nothing of the sort. His
nome ia sure to be retained though he is not liza
| bic, and although when he is drawn again on an
other panel and brought into court his legal excuse
is sure TO save HIM from service. But hls name IS
kent on the list of liable jurors and is put into the
wheel each month if he competent to serve"
"Whyf 1t is of no benefit TO the Commissioner
| to do this, is it !"
"No but subppna-servers must live. by hook or
crook and this ia one of the crooked means. The
legal fee to the Sheriff of the county for serving
subpoena on a juror is 80 cents, 70 cents going 10
the Sheriff and 10 cents to the deputy who serves
| it, If panel of 100 men not liable should be
drawn it would make only this difference to the
| Sheriff and his deputy-they would get $50 for
| serving the 100 and an equal amount for
serving an additional or extra panel for the same
| COURT
" Then non-liable juror is worth as inuch as TWO
| to the subpuna-server n
Theoretically, yes; but of course in practice 1t
| doesn't average so much. You can Sec however,
that it is no to the Commissioner OF Jurors
or the Sheriff to strike off the of those who
| have legal excuses Well. this process OF enroll
ment goes on all summer Names do disappear from
| the list however, but they bought Oft. And
though it is not of the slightest interest TO the Com
missioner of Jurors that the list be thus reduced
somebody profits by the dropping OF every name.
THIS list as finally made up, is submitted to certain
judges, Who as a rule make a pro formq examina
ton of it, and pronounce it legal, without really
knowing anything about it, They trust to the
Commissioner of Jurors to see that it is all right
but he personally knows nothing about it. He
trusts to his deputy that correct. and he
to his assistant and finally the responsibility dis
appears or is divided among lot of wholly IRE
sponsble persons or clerks"
A TRUSTING DISPOSITION ALL AROUND.
Are the panels for the various courts drawn
from this entire list I"
"No. Lists of from 1000 to 5000 names
selected from this big list by somebody in the Com
missioner of Jurors Office, sent about the 10th
of each month to the County Clerk ~ be put in the
from these lists There are only enough names put
in the wheel to supply the demand for the month
for which the drawings are to be made, that viz
tually the Jurors for any month selected bv the
clerk who makes up the monthly lists. The draw
ing in the County Clerks Office settles nothing more
than the question of what courts each panel of 100
will be sent TO. Now the County Clerk probably
knows no more about these monthly lists than the
Judges and Commissioner know about the big list.
The County Clerk trusts his deputy. who trusts his
assistant and so on. The Judges who have super
vIsed the big list come in TO supervise the drawing
of the panels, but they know nothing about it, bu!
trust the Sheriff and County Clerk and Commits
soner of Jurors to gee that it is all right. But they
usually chat with the Judges if they attend at all,
and a deputy does the actual work. 1t is the most
stupid of legal formalitles, and would be a farce
were it not that under the present system pair of
corrupt deputies or clerks can draw any names for
any court or even any they WISH"
cont of two or three thousand names in the
wheel W
Yes, precisely Suppose there is a suit involving
a large sum set down eremptOrily to be tried on
certain day. and somebody wants 100 certain men
called, or men of a certain class. deputy county
clerk deputy sheriff and deputy commissioner OF
jurors cam with their innocent chiefs and all the
judges looking on. draw those identical 100 men
from that wheel turn it and whir it and twist it as
they may. How I Suppose brDed clerk of
of the Commissioner of Jurors has selected
the 100 names and put them together with
a small elastic band around one end of the package
what is there bribed clerk Of the County
Clerk OF q bribed deputy sheriff from drawing them
one at time from the wheel Nothing Particu
larly as the Judges don't look on, ard the Com
missioner and Sheriff and County Clerk don't usu-
ally attend. 1t not only be done, but 1t has been
done in more cases than And this process OBJ
yiAtes the need of buying up Clerk of the Court |
or personally bribing or otherwise influencing |