Along with aggressive recruiting efforts in the Hispanic community, court administrators cut the jury pool from 40,000 to 6,700 to boost the overall percentage of Hispanics and meet requirements that juries accurately reflect the makeup of the county.
In Hall and Gwinnett County, the Hispanic population has grown by about 500 percent and 650 percent, respectively, in the past decade. But still relatively few are summoned for jury duty.
Last fall, Hall County Superior Court Judge Kathlene Gosselin postponed a death-penalty trial, agreeing with a defense attorney that Hispanics were underrepresented in the jury pool. The judge also criticized the county for not doing enough to fix the problem.
Gosselin noted that Hispanics comprise 17.1 percent of the county's over-18 population, according to the census, but they make up no more than 2.6 percent of the jury pool. She also ruled that Hispanics should be classified and tracked as a separate group for jury duty, as is done for blacks.
In Georgia, jury rolls are compiled from lists of registered voters and licensed drivers, as well as other sources deemed appropriate by each county's volunteer jury commission. In addition, any U.S. citizen 18 and over can simply sign up.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/5/194152