Countywide : Supervisors OK Ways to Diversify Jury Pool

After reviewing a report on ways to improve the grand jury recruiting process, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted unanimously to support five proposed methods of widening the panel’s candidate pool and clarifying juror qualifications.

The annual report, prepared by current grand jurors, provided them with a platform to address criticism last year that the grand jury does not reflect Orange County’s diverse population.

The supervisors supported the jurors’ recommendations on publicity for their recruitment efforts, such as expanding the Grand Jury Outreach Program and dubbing November “Grand Jury Awareness Month.”

The board also endorsed several methods of eliminating conflict of interest concerns, such as having the county marshal’s department, instead of the district attorney’s office, conduct background checks. That change, the report noted, would prevent prosecutors, who present cases to the jury, from having any effect on the panel’s makeup.

A third recommendation, authorizing the jury commissioner and the marshal’s department to draw up guidelines for background checks, was also intended to clarify qualifications for sitting on the grand jury. The board endorsed the suggestion, which was put into effect in the months since it was tentatively suggested last September.

The board rejected two juror recommendations that officials said would conflict with state statutes or case law. Those suggestions--standardizing the guidelines used to narrow the field of juror candidates and scrapping the home-visit portion of the background check--were “inconsistent with applicable law,” the board said in its response.

The grand jury serves as the county’s government watchdog and decides whether criminal charges should be filed in some cases that the district attorney’s office brings to the panel. Jurors serve a one-year term.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens and older than 18. The deadline for applications for the 1995-96 panel has passed, but people interested in serving on the grand jury can have their names placed on a mailing list for future panels by calling (714) 834-6747.