Editorial: Calling all jurors with an electric bill

Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2005 | 7:38 a.m.

Clark County officials are seeking to expand and diversify the pool of residents called to sit on juries. Since most people receive an electric bill, they have asked Nevada Power for its customer list. But the company refused, citing a 1999 state law.

The six-year-old measure allows courts in counties with populations of less than 400,000 to demand such lists from utility companies to make sure there are enough jurors to do the job. But the law is vague regarding counties with more than 400,000 residents, and a Las Vegas Sun story on Tuesday reported that Nevada Power officials have interpreted it to mean they should refuse to provide the utility's customer list to Clark County's courts.

Clark County Court Executive Chuck Short told Sun reporter Matt Pordum that District Court judges have given court administrators their unanimous support to "use whatever means are appropriate" to obtain Nevada Power's customer list for juror pools.

Currently, all potential county jurors are drawn from Nevada Department of Motor Vehicle's driver's license and state identification card databases. There are concerns that the use of only one agency's list creates juror pools that don't adequately reflect the population's diversity.

Not all people drive or possess identification cards. Those who are poor tend to move more often and may not report address changes to the DMV. As a result, juries do not adequately represent people from lower socio-economic groups.

It's not the first time the diversity of county's juror pools have been questioned. In October the Sun reported that Nevada Supreme Court documents showed prosecutors had not fully complied with a 2003 law requiring that they report the race and gender of victims, defendants and jurors involved in murder and voluntary manslaughter cases.

The Supreme Court also had recommended that Nevada use lists from multiple agencies in finding potential jurors. Clark County officials have said Arizona, California and Utah use multiple lists, and the technology exists to make sure residents aren't called to serve twice.

Nevadans are entitled to an unbiased judicial system that includes juries reflecting the population's diversity. When it next convenes, in 2007, the Nevada Legislature should clarify this law to assure the privacy of public utilities customers while allowing courts access to information that can improve our judicial system.