The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-04-18
WANTS A
JURY LAW
Sheriff Will Draw
RObinSon's
Jury.
JUDGE MAKES A
WELCOME CHANGE
Newest Appointee to Circui. Bench
Points Out Need OF Legis-
lative Action.

| High Sheriff Brown will impanel tn
| fury for Judge Robinson's court for tn
| next term. which opens May 9Th. Judg'
| Robinson is to preside at the May term
but under the new rules OF court, eacf
Judge will draw his own jurymen.
\ has not been decided as yet whether
or not a grand jury will be called, but
| in any event its session will be brief
The Legislature should enact law
providing for the summoning of jur-
ors by lot" said Judge Robinson yes
invalid by the Supreme Court, and
would be impracticable now in any
event. The old statute provided that
there should be both a Hawaiian and
foreign jury, while the Organic Act
saws that all court proceedings must be
in the English language. which of
course precludes the possibility of ma
tive Hawaiians serving. unless they
have also the other qualification.
Formerly fifty names OF Hawaiians
and fifty of foreigners were prepared by
the sheriff and the judge. acting in con-
cert, and written on slips OF paper.
From these fifty names twenty-four
were drawn by lot by the clerk OF the
court, twenty days before the opening
of the term. In the absence Of spe-
cific statute the courts must now resort
to the common law method until new
statute can be enacted by the Legisla-
ture. The common law provides that
the sheriff shall draw the jurors from
the body of the county, and while we
have no such subdivision here, the cir
cult takes its place. THE. BAILIFF
LAW GIVES THE BAILIFF ALL THE
POWERS OF A SHERIFF, BUT BE-
LIEVE THAT THE SHERIFF
SHOULD CONTINUE TO EXERCISE
THIS AUTHORITY AS IN THE PAST.
FOR IN THAT CASE THERE CAN
BE NO QUESTION AS TO THE ACTS
OF THE COURT.
There is some difficulty here in
framing a law which will do away with
the present method OF drawing jurors.
and make such choice solely by lot, as
is done in other places, but still the
need OF such a law is urgent. And one
should be adopted. AS it is now. jury
service becomes burdensome on some
members of the community. as it is
not equally distributed. The proper
way would be TO prepare lists OF jurors
competent to serve either from the reg
istration or the assessment rolls and
draw the jury by ballot each time.
Then when one citizen has served for
one term. his slip should be destroyed,
so that ne is free. until every other eIig-
fble citizen has taken his turn at jury
duty"
"Of course the assessment rolls OF
registration lists contain the names of
persons who are not competent to serve
on 5uries. for there are many Hawai-
ians who cannot read and write the
English language. which is necessary
qualification. The persons making up
the slips would naturally have TO strike
such names from the jury list. other
wise probably more than half the num-
Der drawn would be disqualified upon
eNamina ton.
Conditions here are different from
other States. where they have large
English speaking populations. and the
fact that there are so few qualified jur
ors in Honolulu makes IL difficult 20
frame the right kind of law. In San
Francisco the Supervisors prepare the
lists OF names from each district. tax
ing them from the great register. in
which is enrolled all persons having the
necessary qualifications. From these
lists the Superior Judges draw the jar
Ors as they are needed for service, by
lnr
vide for jury commissioner. who must
be of opposite political faith from the
clerk Of court. These two men make up
300 names. and from these the clerk
draws the juries by lot n the presence [
Of the court This is the method in
vogue in the United States District
Court here.
Until Hawaii gets a jury law. the
common law method viii be followed. !
though the Legislature sGuu'5 enact a /
statute by which the courts could b