Madam Justice Pamela Beckles wants steps taken to ensure that all jurors receive their stipend for jury duty at the start and not the end of their service.
She made the call on Monday as she stressed that jury pools need to be made up of people from all walks of life, and it was therefore necessary to reduce instances of individuals not being able to participate due to lack of financial resources.
“You often get the stipend at the end, and sometimes it takes a long time to get it, so I am saying that they should put things in place to allow persons to get something ahead of time. Other persons have complained and it is something that needs to be looked at because we do lose a good section of people,” the High Court judge said.
She made the comments in the No. 5 Supreme Court as an unemployed male juror asked to be excused from jury duty, saying he would be financially stretched having to attend court every day.
“This situation has arisen a couple of times where people do not mind serving on the jury and they are being taken from all cross-sections. The gentleman is here saying ‘I ain’t working and I don’t have no bus fare to get here and you will need to get lunch’, so I think things need to be put in place whereby some finance is there for them,” Justice Beckles added.
As she welcomed the new jurors, she also reminded employers that all jurors were not required to be in court every day, making it clear that if they were not selected to sit on a jury they could head to work.
“So once jurors are selected and you are not empanelled, you can go right back to the office to continue to work until that trial is finished and we need a fresh set of jurors. We do not expect you all to be here for the full six weeks,” Beckles said.
Also welcoming the new jury pool in the No. 2 Supreme Court, Justice Randall Worrell urged the group against using social media and other means to research matters they are hearing.
“It is your civic duty to be fair in your deliberations to the State and to the accused,” he stressed, urging them not to discuss the matters with anyone and to use their common
sense.
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