Jury selection turnout drops

Fewer than 9 percent of Harris County residents summoned for grand jury selection showed up last week as the service moved to NRG Arena to accommodate social distancing measures, according to the Harris County District Clerk’s Office.

The pool to impanel grand juries for five felony district courts was slightly more diverse than it was for all jury selections from 2019, but continued to underrepresent Black and Hispanic populations.

The number of people who showed up in person at NRG or virtually by Zoom was less than the usual turnout, but that was expected because of the pandemic, District Clerk Marilyn Burgess said. In 2019, 22 percent of people who were called for jury duty actually appeared.

“While our response rate was lower than in normal times, we got what we needed,” Burgess said.

On six days of jury duty, from July 6 to 13, 424 people appeared in person or by Zoom out of 5,000 who were summoned. Almost 1,350 of those who were called were exempted from service, and 719 summons were undeliverable.

Appearances didn’t match up to population estimates. During the grand jury selection, about 49 percent of prospective jurors were white, 24 percent were Hispanic or Latino, 15 percent were Black and 8 percent were Asian.

In July 2019, Harris County cen

sus estimates placed the population at 28.7 percent white, 43.7 percent Hispanic or Latino, 20 percent Black and 7.3 percent Asian.

Throughout that year, 54 percent of jury duty participants were white, 20 percent were Hispanic, 15 percent were Black and 10 percent were Asian.

Howard Henderson, founding director of the Center for Justice Research at Texas Southern University, said he found the racial diversity statistics encouraging.

Many people expected turnout to be even lower than usual for Black and Hispanic populations because they are disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of the pandemic. But those people might not have taken into account that the system at NRG could be more accessible for minorities, with its free parking and the option to instead appear by Zoom, Henderson said.

For people who are laid off from their jobs, the small check returned from jury duty could help, he said.

“Maybe this is an opportunity to utilize technology to our benefit to improve engagement and participation,” Henderson said.

Mark Thiessen, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, still questioned how diversity remained so similar between grand jury calls and previous jury calls.

“You would think that the way that COVID and fear for people’s health wouldn’t just transcend through the population at an even rate,” he said.

While several civil courts have successfully petitioned exceptions to start trials in August, the criminal lawyers association has vocally opposed the NRG plan as well as a timeline to officially restart trials on Sept. 1. New health and safety protocols could hinder jury selection and witness testimony, Thiessen said, possibly opening cases resolved during the pandemic up to appeal.

“We can’t function with this,” he said. “People can wear a face mask if they’re talking about millions of dollars in insurance money, I bet you can’t wear a face mask if you’re talking about life in prison.”

The grand juries have not been finalized, Burgess said. Of the hundreds who appeared, 288 of them will return on Aug. 3 or 4 to be chosen.

Grand juries hear evidence on criminal cases and issue indictments if they determine that probable cause exists to show a crime was committed.