Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, introduced new legislation this week that would pay low- to middle-income California residents $100 a day when serving jury duty.
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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 daily $100 stipends to jurors with household incomes less than 80% of their area median.
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 an excuse 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 it serves in court.
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"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."
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 & Diversity Center. "No individual should have to choose between feeding their family and carrying out their civic duty as a juror."
The white supremacist who killed 10 Black people in a Buffalo supermarket was hustled out of a courtroom Wednesday after someone in the audience rushed at him and was restrained by a court officer. Payton Gendron's sentencing in the attack, which was fueled by racist conspiracy theories he encountered online, resumed shortly after the disruption, which happened as Barbara Massey Mapps excoriated him for killing her 72-year-old sister, Katherine Massey. As Mapps shouted and pointed at Gendron, a person in the audience took a few steps toward him before getting held back. “You don’t know what we’re going through,” a man shouted as he was led away by court officers. For several minutes thereafter, family members hugged and calmed each other. Judge Susan Eagan ordered Gendron back in and let the proceeding resume after about 10 minutes, admonishing everyone to “conduct ourselves appropriately.” “I understand that emotion, and I understand the anger, but we cannot have that in the courtroom,” she said. Gendron pleaded guilty in November to charges including murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. The terrorism charge carries an automatic life sentence. The sentencing was a chance for loved ones of the dead, as well as people wounded in the attack last spring, to pour out their loss, anguish and ire.
PHOTOS: This Week in Napa Valley, Feb. 10
A firefighter worked to extinguish a structure fire that broke before noon Wednesday inside a home in the 1500 block of the Silverado Trail.
Justin-Siena’s Trina Talivaa (8) dribbles past American Canyon goalkeeper Shannia Culver on her way to scoring the first goal of Thursday night's Vine Valley Athletic League girls soccer matchup against Justin-Siena at Dodd Stadium in Napa.
Bel Aire Park ceramics teacher Pam Imbach works with fifth-graders at the Napa school as they begin the process of designing a clay mask as part of an art project recognizing Black History Month.
A participant competes in the 21st annual Napa County Pruning Contest put on by the Farmworker Foundation at Beringer Vineyards Gamble Ranch in Yountville on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023.
Alexander Geron, 3, practices pruning before the start of the 21st annual Napa County Pruning Contes, which the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation staged Saturday morning.
A participant competes in the 21st annual Napa County Pruning Contest at Beringer Vineyards' Gamble Ranch near Yountville. The competition featured 106 farmworkers in men's and women's divisions.
Tacos calabacitas at Lencho's are a vegetarian creation with yellow squash, zucchini, corn, onion, cilantro, poblano chilis, crema and queso.
The referee raises Napa’s David Lopez arm after he pinned Vintage’s Aiden Ridddleberger during their heavyweight bout in a Vine Valley Big Game wrestling match in Napa on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Napa would defeat Vintage 37-36.
