JUROR QUALIFICATION QUESTIONNAIRE H.B. 4054: FLOOR ANALYSIS
House Bill 4054 (as reported without amendment)
Sponsor: Representative Steve Bieda
House Committee: Judiciary
Senate Committee: Judiciary
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Revised Judicature Act (RJA) to allow the name of a person who has been convicted of a felony to be removed from the list of people in a county who receive a juror qualification questionnaire. (Under the RJA, as amended by Public Act 739 of 2002, a person who ever has been convicted of a felony is disqualified from jury service.)
The RJA's juror selection procedures require a county's jury board to compile a "first jury list", based on random selection from a list of people in that county who have a Michigan driver's license or personal identification card. The board then must supply a juror qualifications questionnaire to people on the first jury list. The bill would allow the jury board, with the approval of the chief circuit judge, to remove from the first jury list the name of any person who is disqualified from serving as a juror because he or she has been convicted of a felony.
MCL 600.1312 Legislative Analyst: Suzanne Lowe
FISCAL IMPACT
To the extent that the bill would decrease the number of juror qualification questionnaires mailed by local governments, by exempting convicted felons, it could nominally decrease postage costs.
Date Completed: 3-16-05 Fiscal Analyst: Bethany Wicksall
Analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent. hb4054/0506