Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, has introduced new legislation that would pay low- to middle-income California residents $100 a day when serving jury duty.
Assembly Bill 881, labeled “Be the Jury California,” seeks to build on San Francisco’s pilot program that raised jury service stipends for criminal trials from $15 per day to $100.
If passed, the bill would provide $100 daily stipends to jurors with household incomes less than 80 percent of their area median income.
Though state employers are required to provide time off for employees called for jury duty, they do not have to provide paid leave.
Residents can file to be excused from jury duty if they cannot afford to miss days, weeks or months of their salary.
Ting said this is causing a significant inequality in providing diverse juries that reflect the communities they serve in court.
“This bill would make criminal juries across California fairer and a more accurate reflection of their communities, bringing us all closer to what the Constitution promises — a jury of our peers,” Ting said. “The right to a jury of one’s peers is at the core of our justice system. Individuals from all economic classes are entitled to serve on juries and should receive adequate compensation for doing so.”
“Too often, our indigent clients in San Francisco, as well as across California, are not afforded the right to a jury of their peers when nobody on the jury looks like them or comes from their communities.”
Mano Raju, San Francisco Public Defender
Ting’s bill is backed by a slew of Bay Area legal figures, including both San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
“This bill will improve the criminal justice system statewide significantly by ensuring that more residents are able to perform their civic duty across the state,” Jenkins said. “When all people, regardless of income, are able to participate in the process, we get better outcomes.”
Supporters said the bill would expand the pool of potential jurors in California courts, as financial barriers are causing juries to be increasingly less diverse.
“Too often, our indigent clients in San Francisco, as well as across California, are not afforded the right to a jury of their peers when nobody on the jury looks like them or comes from their communities,” said Raju. “Be The Jury CA can start to re-balance the scales of justice.”
“Prior to the San Francisco pilot, juries here were trending whiter and wealthier, which threatens the right to a jury of one’s peers,” said Yolanda Jackson, executive director and general counsel of the Bar Association of San Francisco and its Justice and Diversity Center. “No individual should have to choose between feeding their family and carrying out their civic duty as a juror.”