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PUBLIC NOTICE re Selection of Grand and Petit Jurors

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1861, all "...litigants have the right to grand and petit jurors selected at random from a fair cross section of the community."

The names selected from the source lists (Voter Registration and Bureau of Motor Vehicles) for inclusion in the Master Jury Wheel for the Southern District of Ohio are selected at random.

 The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio uses a two step process to select jurors.

  1. First, a master jury wheel is created by selecting names from Voter Registration Lists from the counties of the District and from Drivers Lists from those same counties. Then, names are randomly drawn periodically from the master jury wheel to receive juror qualification questionnaires. Individuals' answers to these questionnaires determine whether they are legally qualified to serve. If qualified, the names of those persons are put on a second wheel - a qualified wheel.
     
  2. As prospective jurors are needed for a specific trial or grand jury, juror summonses are sent to persons randomly selected from the qualified wheel.

All of these selections are carried out through an electronic data processing system for pure randomized selection. The pure randomized selection ensures that the mathematical odds of any single name being drawn are substantially equal.