New-York tribune., 1895-10-26
roR 4 BETTER JURY SYSTEM
.o,,,ussroNER PLIMLEy HAS A PLAN FOR
THE PUBLIC CONVENIENCE.

-, ,su EFFORTS OF CITIZENS TO AVOID DUTY
&C NORTHUMBERLAND EFFECTS UPON
srGIsrRATIoN-How NAMES FOR THE
PANELS ARE OBTAINED
u.uism PlImey Commissioner OF Jurors. has
W, for changing the present jury system so that
70. will be less inconvenience to the public In
living iurymen. The Commissioner is not wiling
n, 10 tell exactly what his proposed Improvement
III he He says he will have his plan formulat ed
T., n.cember and that II will provide for the use Of
mans name not more than once In two years so
that no man VIII DC ca"ee upon W serve IN sue
cessve years.
commissioner Pl!m.ey says that the fear OF being
sr.wn for jury duty keeps many men from register
,,c as voters but that their efforts escape duty
BY falling to register are foolish and seldom et-
fective.
.Iu one Assembly district" he told a Tribune re-
,.,,er Yesterday, Il know OF more than 200 men
who have failed to register. presumably this ac-
count, and in other districts the number runs from
100 10 800 Taking last years registration OF sOs coo
names | should roughly estimate that between
and per cent of that number VIII be unregistered
this year. attempt at evasion OF jury duty
Last year the campaign drew out large registrs-
lion and the excitement is less and the registrat
less
These men. who think they dodge jury duty
by falling to register, something like ostrich
which buries its head In the sand and believes that
its whole body is hidden from view. The Commits
soner OF Jurors is by no means dependent for his
lists OF the registration list alone. He has
the City Directory. for thing. in which the
names generally spelled correctly and the occu
A. lions are given. Then he the lists to
ia.l back in OF emergency. although these
lists are not altogether trustworthy. names being
spelled incorrectly and the names OF women being
sometimes given for those OF men.
Last but not east. the Commissioner has a
number of other sources OF information. For one
thing OF those liable for jury duty are often
ssn; 10 him by friends.
4 should be glad" said the Commissioner III
everybody who knows OF persons trying 10 evade
jury duty by not registering would send me the
most rght-think.ng people believe. that these men
who try escape jury service and do not even
want TO yoie-and the majority are very well-io-do
should be compelled serve. These people some
times keep their of the directory by
telling Their servants 10 inform inqurers that there
is 10 man in the house by giving wrong name or
By refusing TO talk at al. But catch them in the
end" added Commissioner Pmley
How many people do you suppose we finally get
for duty from those who report here? he asked
Take October 81. for instance. out OF 546 men we
got eighty-four that were exempt and were IN
telllgent OF the rest. 403 were exempt for various
reasons and there were 30 aliens OF the aliens. a
large percentage are usually Engisnmen VINO take
no particular interest In our public AFFAIRS, and
never make oath OF loyalty 20 anybody but their
Queen. Ne have put in the wheel ior th!s year
about 1900 names and shall probably add about
OF which w drew 2s.5s2 while the remainder, 2sli
were verified and put back in the wheel.
IN year This IS never so N jury year az
though 1, is sometimes true of a calendar year.
The jury year from June 10 october. so
man might be drawn In June and again In Octoper
but he could no; then be drawn until the follow
Ing October. | think that the jury year should
correspond with the calendar year"