The New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) argued in legal papers that jury selection in an ongoing criminal trial in Bergen County raised constitutional concerns and should be scrapped to allow for a more transparent jury selection process that preserves the defendant’s right to participate in the process. The NJSBA made the arguments in a brief seeking to be permitted as an amicus party in State v. Dangcil, the first criminal jury trial to be held since the Judiciary shut them down in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NJSBA said in its brief that the jury selection process used in the case wasn’t appropriate because the county’s jury management office exercised “unfettered and unrecorded discretion” in excusing some people from jury service. Further, it did not keep records about dismissed jurors, nor did it collect demographic data of potential jurors, meaning the defendant and attorneys on both sides could not participate fully in jury selection and a representative jury may not have been selected.
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