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State v. Bondurant3/20/1998
ections before trial. We find no reversible error.
At the hearing on the motion for new trial, the defendant presented proof tending to show that the jury selection procedures employed in Maury County violated several provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated sections 22-2-101 to -309. There was proof that jury commissioners for Maury County were notified by the circuit court clerk's office when they needed names for the jury box. Each commissioner picked names from his or her districts at random from the voter registration books and sometimes from the telephone directory, trying to find people of each age, gender, and race, and people with good voting records. One commissioner also looked for persons who did not have criminal records. Tabs were only kept on the number of names picked from each district. If one of the commissioners knew that someone was a doctor, a nurse, an attorney, or a minister, the name would not be listed. The commissioners would write the names, addresses, and districts on a legal pad and give them to the circuit court clerk's office so the names and districts could be typed on slips of paper.
When names were drawn from the jury box, someone in the clerk's office would be blindfolded or would look away while drawing the names. The chairman of the jury commission then read out the districts, and another commissioner tallied the number of names from each district. The names were already in the jury box when the commissioners arrived for the drawing. If they knew that a person was dead or had moved away, that person's juror slip was set aside. Once the names were drawn, the commissioners did not make a list of the names, seal the list with the actual slips, or put them in an envelope to give to the trial court. Instead, the jury commissioners only certified the number of names drawn.
One jury commissioner remembered being sworn in when he was initially appointed; however, another jury commissioner did not remember taking an oath. Joe H. Scott, the circuit court clerk for Maury County at the time of this trial, testified that he did not take a separate oath of office as clerk for the jury commission. However, he testified the commissioners always took an oath upon reappointment. Scott testified there was no master list of all the names eventually put in the jury box; instead, the clerk's office had an attendance book with the names of people who reported for jury duty and were chosen by the court to serve as jurors. Contrary to the testimony of the commissioners, Scott testified that the commissioners put the names in the jury box. He confirmed that normally one of the deputy clerks would be blindfolded or would turn her back while drawing the names. After the names were drawn, they would be divided into districts, and the clerks would type the summons list. Scott testified that the slips of paper with the names on them were put in an envelope and kept in the vault until there was no room for them, as were the summons lists. At the time of the hearing, the oldest jury cards left in the vault were from 1992.
Scott prepared the report of how many jurors were drawn on a specific day, and all three commissioners would then sign it. After the summons list was typed, a copy was placed on the bulletin board in the courthouse for public viewing, and the original was sent to the sheriff's office for service. If a summons letter was returned undelivered, the person's name was marked off. After two or three years, these letters were thrown away. When the vault was cleaned out periodically, the original juror tickets were thrown away. Scott testified that the court was not given a list of the names drawn from the jury box with the original tickets in a sealed envelo
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