Check the mail: Juror questionnaires mailed to thousands of Midlanders – Midland Daily News

Midland County Clerk Ann Manary announced this week that 6,000 Midland County residents will be receiving a Juror Qualification Questionnaire in the mail.

Individuals were randomly selected by computer from an index of all Midland County residents holding a Michigan driver's license or Michigan personal ID card.

Receipt of this questionnaire means one is being considered as a potential juror for Midland County for the fiscal year of Oct. 1, 2021 through Sept. 30, 2022.

Those who receive the questionnaire are required by state law to fill it out and return it to the County Clerk no later than 10 days from the date they receive it.

Receipt of the questionnaire does not necessarily mean one will be selected to serve as a juror. Out of the 6,000 recipients, only about half will be summoned to serve.

The right and privilege to receive a trial by a jury of one's peers is a basic freedom and a constitutional right. Annually, Midland County selects jurors in order to protect this freedom.

The questionnaires will be reviewed by the Midland County Jury Board, which consists of three individuals appointed by the Midland Board of Commissioners upon recommendation of the local circuit court judges. These individuals are appointed for six-year terms and must include a minimum of one person each from both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

In several weeks, the Midland Jury Board will meet to begin the evaluation process of the questionnaires. At that time, they remove individuals who have cause for exemption. You are exempt if you are not a United States citizen, if you do not speak or understand English, if you have served as a juror during the past 12 months, if you have been convicted of a felony, or if you have a physical or mental disability that would affect your jury service.

Persons 70 years of age and older may exempt themselves. If an exemption is not claimed on the questionnaire because of age, the questionnaire will be processed accordingly.

Only the Midland Jury Board has access to the information on the questionnaire. Once one is selected to serve on a jury panel, only the prosecutor and the attorneys involved in a trial have access to the second side of the questionnaire.

Once the jury board determines the eligible questionnaires, names may be selected via computer to serve on a jury panel for circuit, district or probate court.

Jurors will be sent a summons from the court notifying them that they have been selected to serve for a specific month well in advance for planning personal and business activities. Panels are on call to serve for a period of one month.

The normal length of a jury trial in Midland County is several days to one week. Sequestration of a jury would be an extreme rarity, having only occurred once in the past decade for the deliberation portion of the trial only.

Jurors are paid $15 for the first half-day and up to $45 for each full day thereafter. Mileage is paid at a rate of 30 cents per mile for one round trip per day from one's home to the Midland County Courthouse.

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Check the mail: Juror questionnaires mailed to thousands of Midlanders - Midland Daily News