State Lawmakers Introduce Legislation Aiming to Diversify Jury Pools

In California, prospective jurors are currently reached by using Department of Motor Vehicle data and voter registration lists. According to the authors of the bill, these sources skew whiter, wealthier and overall less diverse than California’s overall demographics.

“Our juries now in California are wealthier and whiter than California residents as a whole, and certainly wealthier and whiter than most of the people who they are sitting there to judge,” said State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who co-authored the bill, in a press conference Wednesday.

California's current jury summoning process leaves out segments of the state’s population that don't vote or have DMV-issued identification. This could exclude people for a number of reasons — from people who have moved since last updating their information, to those in urban areas without a car. Tax filings, on the other hand, are updated yearly and would broaden the pool to include anyone who filed for a refund or state earned income.

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