NOTE. The following note is added, more fully to explain the provisions regulating the manner of selecting jurors. The period fixed by the Revised Statutes for the selection of petit jurors by towns, occurs only once in three years, and in consequence, the duty is often wholly unknown or forgotten by those upon whom it devolves. Great embarassment and delay have been occasioned by the neglect to make their returns, and there is probably not a county in the State where the clerk has not been obliged to remind the town officers of the necessity of their attention to it. By making this duty annual, and connecting it with the assessment, it will not be omitted. By the existing law, there is no rule by which the town officers are governed in respect to the number of jurors to be selected and returned. Whether jury service be regarded as a tax or a privilege, there is an equal propriety in apportioning its burthens and benefits equally on those liable to jury duty. To exhibit the disproportion which now exists among the towns of the same counties, inquiry was made in September last, of the clerks of three of the central counties in the State, respecting the returns for the current year. The replies to those inquiries are from only part of the towns in one of the counties, and all of them in the others. The number of jurors in proportion to the population is stated as follows: FOURTH REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS ON PRACTICE AND PLEADINGS. CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE. ALBANY: WEED, PARSONS & Co., PUBLIC PRINTERS. .......... |