Greedy Trial Lawyer
Not Quite A Jury Of Your Peers
Category: Why Didn't I Think Of That?
A jury of your peers may not always mean you get the young ones.
Review launched over stale jurors list in St. John's
A mistrial ordered Wednesday in Newfoundland Supreme Court over an outdated jury list has prompted the provincial justice minister to launch a review of the sheriff's office, with one defence lawyer already planning an appeal on a murder case.Justice William Adams declared a mistrial for Sean Buckingham, a St. John's physician facing 23 charges of trafficking and sexual assault, when his lawyer, Randy Piercey, argued that the local jurors list is woefully out of date.
"I suppose the central issue was that no one under the age of 28 could sit on a jury in Newfoundland, because of the way the jury system was working," Piercey said.
The list of potential jurors has not been updated since 1999, and is based on data collected by the motor vehicle registration system.
John McDonald, the acting high sheriff, said the only explanation he could offer was a breakdown in communications.
"I couldn't believe when I looked at the list, and discovered that no one born after 1980 was on the jury list," he said. "It was just luck that we found it."
Now, if we could only leave out the Rush Limbaugh ditto-heads.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.greedytriallawyer.com/admin/mt-tb.cgi/495