By Daniel Monson
A letter arrives from the judge several weeks before the trial, summoning appearance at the pre-trial selection.
Of this jury pool, between eight and 12 will be selected to comprise a jury.
Mark the calendar, there is little chance to avoid the call.
?Being a student doesn?t make you immune to jury duty,? said Don Olsen, Fourth District Court law clerk and bailiff. ?Students still have this obligation except in cases of extreme hardship.?
Finals, Olsen said, are one case of extreme hardship.
Given the number of students in the community, Olsen estimates six or seven out of 10 juries includes at least one student.
Selection is based on voter and vehicle registration. The list is then cut into four parts, each being active 3 months of the year.
If selected, names will not be selected again for at least another year. The judge?s bailiff is responsible for providing a jury pool to the court.
?The jury is a group of people that generally reflect the community,? Olsen said. ?If students were absent from the process, there would be a big hole. The judicial process then would not be as accurately represented.?
A former BYU student, Liisa Hancock now serves as Judge Gary D. Stott?s law clerk and bailiff.
?As a student I probably would find jury duty difficult,? Hancock said. ?However, I think there is a huge benefit of students on the jury. Students have schooling, although each person has hardships in serving on a jury.?
Failing to appear for selection could result in anything from community service to fines.
Vickie Bendall, a Utah Valley State College student studying elementary education, was recently called in for jury selection.
?There were about 41 of us, and we all filled out a survey when we got there,? Bendall said. ?I was called into the judges chambers, and the lawyers asked me questions about your survey responses.?
The lawyers are not able to select the jurors they want; rather they can agree to scratch names off the list. Following name removal, the first eight or 12 names are selected.
?I was kind of upset that I was not selected,? Bendall said. ?I had the week off already, so it was a let down. A lot of people were complaining about being there, and the judge kept apologizing, but I felt that to be part of the country we are in, you have to make some sacrifices. If I were called into court, I would you rather have a jury rather than one person making up their mind.?
