Bill would add taxpayers to list for juries

SACRAMENTO » Paying taxes in California could make you eligible for jury duty under a proposal backed by some prominent state lawmakers on Wednesday who worry the people deciding criminal and civil cases are “wealthier and whiter” than the population.

People selected for jury duty in California come from two lists: registered voters and people with driver’s licenses. But state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, said those lists miss a wide swath of the population, including many lower-income residents and people of color.

Wiener’s proposal would require county courts to also pull jurors from a list of people who paid their state taxes.

California has more than 27 million licensed drivers and more than 20 million registered voters. Last year, the state processed 18 million tax returns, according to state Franchise Tax Board. Many people file jointly or claim dependents who are 18 and older, so the number of people that would be eligible from that list is likely much higher.

“If you don’t have a jury of your peers, a jury that is truly a cross section of our diverse communities, it is very hard for someone accused of a crime to get a fair trial,” Wiener said.

Plus, California recently boosted state tax refunds for low-income filers, a move that will likely prompt more low-income people to file tax returns, according to state Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Berkeley.

“Our juries now are whiter and wealthier than California residents as a whole,” she said.

California already expanded its jury pool last year when the Legislature passed a law making some convicted felons eligible for jury duty, with exceptions including people on parole or required to register as sex offenders because of a felony conviction.

At least 17 other states already use tax filers to select jurors, according to the California Public Defenders Association, which supports the bill.

Larry Morse, legislative director of the California District Attorneys Association, said he hasn’t seen the bill. He said prosecutors support the idea of “casting as wide a net as possible” in jury selection, but he worried the Legislature was moving too quickly in a pandemic-shortened session to pass bills without properly reviewing them.

“Many of us are deeply concerned that there are wholesale changes in bills that are being made in the midst of this consuming health pandemic and no one has had an adequate opportunity to examine them in detail,” he said.