Jury Com'n of Morgan County v. State

• Decision Date: 14 June 1912
• Citation: 59 So. 594,178 Ala. 412
• Parties: JURY COMMISSION OF MORGAN COUNTY ET AL. v. STATE EX REL. ATTORNEY GENERAL.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

59 So. 594

178 Ala. 412

JURY COMMISSION OF MORGAN COUNTY ET AL. v. STATE EX REL. ATTORNEY GENERAL.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 14, 1912

Appeal from Law and Equity Court, Morgan County; Thos. W. Wert Judge.

Mandamus by the State, on the relation of the Attorney General against the Jury Commission of Morgan County and others. From an order granting the writ, the respondents appeal. Affirmed.

Kyle &amp Hutson and Callahan & Harris, all of Decatur, for appellants.

R. C. Brickell, Atty. Gen., W. L. Martin, Asst. Atty. Gen., and E. W. Godbey, of Decatur, for appellee.

McCLELLAN J.

Out of the voluminous pleadings in the record and the elaborate briefs of the respective counsel, we extract these questions of controlling effect upon the result of this appeal: First. May a jury commission, after adjournment of the session thereof at which the jury box has been replenished, remove therefrom, at a subsequent meeting, the names of persons who were, at the former meeting, found to be qualified as jurors, and whose names had been placed in the jury box? Second. Has a jury commission the power or authority to investigate and determine whether names on a jury roll or in a jury box were fraudulently or illegally placed thereon or therein by a jury commission, or by members thereof, in apparent, if not real, observance of the duty and power given by the law to place names on such roll or in such box?

The paramount, pertinent law is the jury law, approved August 31, 1909 (Acts Sp. Sess. 1909, pp. 305-320). By section 10, pp. 308, 309, it is provided:

"Sec. 10. The jury commission shall meet in the court-house at the county seat of the several counties on the first Monday in October, 1909, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and shall make in a well-bound book a roll of every male citizen living in the county, who possesses the qualifications herein prescribed, and who is not herein specifically exempted from serving on juries. The roll shall be arranged alphabetically and by precincts in their numerical order, and the commissioners shall cause to be written on the roll opposite every name placed thereon the occupation and residence and place of business of every person selected, and if the residence has a street number, it must be given. Upon the completion of the roll, the commission shall cause to be prepared plain white cards, all of the same size and texture, and shall have written, or printed, on the cards, the name, occupation and place of residence and place of business of the person whose name has been placed on the jury roll; writing or printing but one person's name, occupation and place of residence and place of business, on one card. These cards shall be placed in a substantial metal box, provided with a lock and two keys, which box shall be kept in the safe or vault in the office of the probate judge and if there be none in that office, the commission shall deposit it in any safe or vault in the courthouse to be designated on the minutes, and one of said keys thereof shall be kept by the president of the commission. The other of said keys shall be kept by a judge of a court of record having juries other than the probate or circuit court and in counties having no such court then by the judge of the circuit court for the sole use of the judges of the courts of said county needing jurors."

By section 11, p. 309, it is provided: "The jury commission shall place on the jury roll, and in the jury box the names of all male citizens of the county who are generally reputed to be honest and intelligent men, and are esteemed in the community for their integrity, good character and sound judgment, but no person must be selected who is under twenty-one or over sixty-five years of age, or who is an habitual drunkard, or who, being afflicted with a permanent disease or physical weakness, is unfit to discharge the duties of a juror, or who cannot read English, or who has ever been convicted of any offense involving moral turpitude. If a person cannot read English and has all the other qualifications prescribed herein and is a freeholder or householder his name may be placed on the jury roll, and in the jury box."

By section 12, p. 309, it is provided: "Whenever the names in the jury box are exhausted, or so far depleted that they will probably be exhausted at the next drawing of jurors, the commission must proceed to make and certify a new roll, and deposit the names in the box in all respects as provided in this act; and for this purpose the jury commission must meet whenever it is necessary and refill the jury box."

In section 14 it is required that the jury commission "see that the name of every person possessing the qualifications prescribed by this act to serve as a juror shall be placed on the jury roll and in the...