2020 Georgia Code
Title 15 - Courts
Chapter 12 - Juries
Article 1 - General Provisions
§ 15-12-1. Definitions

As used in this chapter, the term:

1. "Array" means the body of persons subject to voir dire from which the final jury and alternate jurors are selected.
2. "Choose" or "chosen" means the act of randomly selecting potential jurors from the county master jury list in a manner that does not deliberately or systematically exclude identifiable and distinct groups from the venire.
3. "Clerk" means the clerk of the superior court or a jury clerk if one is appointed pursuant to subsection (a) of Code Section 15-12-11 or Code Section 15-12-12.
4. "Council" means The Council of Superior Court Clerks of Georgia.
5. "County master jury list" means a list compiled by the council of names of persons, including their addresses, city of residence, dates of birth, and gender, eligible for trial or grand jury service.
6. "Defer" means a postponement of a person's jury service until a later date.
7. "Excuse" means the grant of a person's request for temporary exemption from jury service.
8. "Inactivate" means removing a person's name and identifying information who has been identified on the county master jury list as a person who is permanently prevented from being chosen as a trial or grand juror because such person is statutorily ineligible or incompetent to serve as a juror.
9. "State-wide master jury list" means a comprehensive master list that identifies every person of this state who can be determined to be prima facie qualified to serve as a trial or grand juror.
10. "Venire" means the list of persons summoned to serve as trial or grand jurors for a particular term of court.

(Code 1981, §15-12-1, enacted by Ga. L. 2011, p. 59, § 1-5/HB 415; Ga. L. 2014, p. 451, § 3/HB 776; Ga. L. 2014, p. 862, § 1/HB 1078.)

The 2014 amendments. The first 2014 amendment, effective July 1, 2014, substituted "Code Section 15-12-12" for "subsection (b) of Code Section 15-12-23" in paragraph (3); substituted "The Council" for "the Council" in paragraph (4); deleted former paragraph (9), which read: " 'Jury commissioner' means a member of a county board of jury commissioners."; and redesignated former paragraphs (10) and (11) as present paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively. The second 2014 amendment, effective April 29, 2014, inserted "trial or grand" near the end of paragraphs (5), (10) (now paragraph (9)) and (11) (now paragraph (10)).

- Ga. L. 2011, p. 59, § 1-1/HB 415, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 'Jury Composition Reform Act of 2011.'"

Ga. L. 2011, p. 59, § 1-5/HB 415, effective July 1, 2011, redesignated former Code Section 15-12-1 as present Code Section 15-12-1.1.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Excusal of juror due to death of brother.

- Trial court did not err when the court granted the state's motion to strike a prospective juror over the defendant's objection, after the juror indicated that serving would be a hardship because the juror's brother had died the day before in Mississippi and the juror believed the funeral would be that weekend, although the juror had not talked to anyone because the juror was in court. Davis v. State, 306 Ga. 764, 833 S.E.2d 109 (2019).