Judge aims to ease jury duty burden on Bethel citizens
FAIRBANKS - A resident of Bethel might spend three months out of the year serving as a juror in as many as six or seven trials in a row.
But a Superior Court judge in Fairbanks has come up with a few ideas to ease the jury service burden on residents, while at the same time saving the state money.
Last year, the state paid $178,000 for room and board, as well as transportation costs, for Bethel area jurors.
The changes are outlined in administrative orders issued in November by Superior Court Judge Niesje Steinkruger, who is presiding judge for the Fourth Judicial District, which covers nearly all of the Interior as well as much of western Alaska.
The judge is initiating a pilot program for next year that will make several changes to the way juries are selected in Bethel, a court jurisdiction that saw 22 felony trials in 2002, 10 fewer than Fairbanks.
First, Steinkruger is reducing the amount of time Bethel-area residents serve on jury duty from three months to one month out of every year. Residents are essentially on call during that term and could be selected for trial at any time during that period, Steinkruger said. Residents can serve in multiple trials during their term of service.
"We have people that have served on way more than two, like six or seven," Steinkruger said.
By reducing the term of service from three months to one, Steinkruger said the burden of jury service will be lessened and spread among more residents.
In a similar move, Steinkruger is reducing the term for service on a grand jury, a group that determines whether to charge someone with a felony crime, from four months to one.
More area residents also will be eligible to serve on both grand juries and trial juries with Steinkruger's changes, which widen the area from which juries can be selected.
Under next year's pilot program, jurors can be selected from within a 50-mile radius around Bethel, an area that includes 11 villages. The current area from which jurors can be selected covers a 30-mile radius around Bethel and includes eight villages.
Steinkruger also is placing limits on when residents from outside Bethel can be called for jury service. If the crime occurs in Bethel, all juries will be selected from the town, which has about 5,500 residents.