Georgia juror questionnaire listed ‘slave’ as occupation option

Officials in Georgia are at a loss to explain how “slave” came to be one of the occupation choices available to potential DeKalb County jurors filling out documents online.

The term was discovered by a potential juror who was using the online questionnaire and started to type in “s” for sales. That’s when he noticed the term “slave” as an option from the drop-down menu, and reported it.

Court administrator Cathy McCumber told WXIA-TV in Atlanta that the word was contained in an internal list of possible occupations.

The list has been maintained for at least 13 years and runs 62 pages long, she said. The administrator also told the station she was not sure how long the term had been on the list, or how it got there in the first place.

Also unclear: Was it intentional? Or an unfortunate typo?

The word has since been removed from the form.

The discovery comes as courthouse operations are moving away from asking jurors to fill out paperwork by hand. The online form is supposed to help streamline operations.

John Evans, president of the DeKalb County chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, told local station WAGT-TV that he was offended by the discovery. “We can’t go around and think everything is peaches and cream because it’s 2013.”

A phone call and email to McCumber for comment were not returned by the time this post was published.

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