Announcement on jury service in Harris County

or something else thank you welcome and thank you for being here today I'd like to take a moment to introduce the elected officials with me we have commissioner Precinct one Rodney Ellis and Harris County Treasurer Dr Carla Wyatt we also have representatives from uh Precinct 4 Leslie brione's office as well as others from Precinct one we are excited oh and we also have District Court Administrator Richard woods with us thank you Richard for being here we are very excited to announce today the passage of Representative Jeff Leach's House Bill 3474 that was passed by the 88th Texas legislature which provides the first jury pay increase in Texas since 2005 when our commissioner Ellis spearheaded that effort Governor Greg Abbott signed this bill and it will go into effect on September 1st by the first day of jury service jury pay will increase from the current six dollars for the day to 20 dollars for subsequent days jury pay will increase from forty dollars to fifty eight dollars the bill specifies the state will reimburse counties for the increase and therefore there is no additional cost to Harris County although this increase is very good news more is needed in terms of jury pay I am con committed to continuing to work with Commissioners Court to supplement the local pay to make it where all can afford to serve increasing jury pay is critical to individuals with low wages and those who would actually lose wages if they show up for jury service in Harris County jury participation has historically been very low in the low 20 percent range and since I took office in 2019 I have been a major advocate for increasing jury pay because I believe it will help improve our participation rate and increase the diversity of those who are on our Harris County juries diversity is a key factor because we all bring different Life Time experiences to the deliberation type and research has shown that diverse juries deliberate longer and make fewer inaccurate statements and correct those statements that are made inaccurately this results in more fair and Equitable verdicts jury verdicts are perceived to be more fair by Outsiders when they are rendered by a diverse jury versus a homogeneous jury and very importantly this leads to Greater confidence in our legal system two more pieces of the bill it also raises the age exemption from 70 to 75 years we are all living longer and healthier and more than able to serve past 70. and it also allows for the formatting of a jury summons to the size of a postcard which could result in significant cost savings to the county and help offset any pay increase the county contributes this year I have worked with Texas lawmakers to increase jury pay my governmental relations administrator Aman alawalia and I have traveled to Austin on numerous occasions to take part in meetings with the legislature to advocate for the passage of this jury pay increase we are proud of this work and grateful to the legislature for passing the bill in addition to working to increase pay for jurors we've worked to make the process easier more pleasant and more efficient thanks to the support from Commissioners Court we now provide free parking and free coffee for our jurors we are also proud of our electronic summoning system called egur which provides for online registration and makes it possible for us to send reminder emails and text messages to those who are scheduled to appear and it makes it possible for us to cancel or reschedule jurors when we see we have more appearing than we will need saving jurors an unnecessary trip downtown and because it helps us control our numbers we are able to save the county money as we don't have to pay those who are canceled and we are now working with our County Treasurer Dr Wyatt to come up with a more friendly and efficient way of paying our jurors all in all we are very excited about the future of jury service in Harris County and at this time I invite commissioner Ellis to deliver remarks commissioner thank you Miss Burgess and uh also Dr White both of you for being here I know my colleagues were trying to come but we just left a press conference that was Outdoors so thank you for having this one indoors you can get a little closer I know I know I did sweat a little bit but look it's an important bill and uh I hope that Governor Abbott will use his veto paying on a few bills that I send smoke signals up on it that I'd like them to veto but this is an important bill and I'm glad that he passed it the sixth amendment guarantees the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of your peers Harris County has long had problems getting people to show up for jira service and thus creating uh less diverse and less representative jury pools this bill puts us a big step in the right direction Harris county is one of the most diverse counties in the country if we're not the most diverse 60 percent of the people eligible for your service identify as non-white yet the county struggles with appearance rates and achieving adequate racial representation among juries back in 2005 if you said I did have the privilege of carrying a bill that was Senate Bill 1706 to increase juror pay after the first day after the first day of Duty from six dollars to forty dollars when that happened it was the first time there'd been an increase since I was born 1954. I'm glad this bill will also let me be eligible for a jury after next year because I'll be 70. and best I can tell despite what some pundits say on social media I'm still in my right mind I want you to know when I passed that bill I had to call somebody to ask what helped me Vincent and Elkins assigned Ron Kirk who later became the mayor of Dallas on a pro bono basis to help get that bill passed I can't remember if it was before he was mayor after he was married I can't remember everything but I called him because I remembered that judge Vinson later one of the founders of the Great Law Firm Vincent and Elkins had a case early on in his career about jury representation mayor Cabinet member Ron Curtin couldn't remember he said it was a case to integrate juries for Mexican Americans I called Harry Reasoner he sent me this text in 1938 judge Vinson the attorney Vincent represented a black Texan Edgar Smith who had been indicted and convicted by an all-white jury Vincent arget discrimination and selecting juries was unconstitutional in 1940 in Texas the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction the case was Smith versus Texas it will be well worth looking up I was joking Harry Reasoner saying that Ron Kirk was staying in a nice hotel and they had him up there for about 40 days on a pro bono basis to get that law passed and I appreciate Vincent and Elkins efforts back then they conducted the law firm did a Statewide study of nearly 150 000 Euro records in Texas starting in 2002. the study found that in Dallas and Houston only 19 percent of people called for jury duty showed up for service young Latinos were also significantly under represented in jury pools one major barrier to appearance was obviously the financial hardship and the loss of wages of jury duty the bill almost died in the house Judiciary Committee back then but former mayor he was a former mayor Ron Kirk and at the time a partner at Vincent Elkins helped me revive that bill today issues with appearance rates and racial diversity are jury panels still processed in Texas from 2018 to 2020 in Harris County only about 20 percent of the people served with jury summonses showed up the response numbers were even worse for black and brown people resulting in underrepresentation in jury pools from 2021 to 2022 black people made up 20 percent of this County's population but only 14 percent of the pool who appeared for jury service Latino Latinos represent 43 during that period of the County's population uh of the but only 23 of the jury pools who showed up our anglo-citizens were over represented making up 29 of the County's population and 47 percent of the jury pool during the time of that study more diverse jurors mean fairer juries according to the National Bureau for economic research unequal representation of juries increasing sentence lengths for African-American defendants by over 50 percent and more than triples the likelihood they receive life sentences in order to truly do justice in Harris County we need to do all we can to increase jury representation and this is a big step in the right direction I'm not going to go through all of this but I want to tell you Sonia did a good job on doing the research for this press conference which is why she asked you to move it so I could show up but I just want to tell you in Travis bear Tarrant and El Paso County's jury pay is six dollars on the first day forty dollars per day uh Los Angeles County Juris pay is zero for the first day 15 dollars per day and 34 cents per mile of one-way travel the state of California does not contribute a dime to it it's all on the counties Miami-Dade Europe pays 15 bucks on the first day thirty dollars per day afterwards but here's the one we want to try and emulate the state of Washington increased your repay from ten dollars to sixty dollars per day of service through a temporary pilot program they concluded that increased juror compensation could lead to increased appearance rates but success dependent upon broad public awareness of those changes and that's why I Clerk and our Treasurer can play an important role to help us make sure this does work so I'm committed to it I hate commissioner Garcia could not be here he was trying to come as well I think you'll have a a sensitive ear on Commissioner's Court so let's work it up and uh that's why you call this press conference to remind us settle on your part put us behind the eight ball the budget people might be listening let's figure out what we can do so we set a standard for Texas and uh in the tradition of what judge Benson would expect us to do and I hope our big law firms will step up and encourage it thank you thank you and now our great treasure yes Dr White good afternoon everyone uh Azure Harris County Treasurer uh I believe this bill is extremely important um as the office that is responsible for getting this money to the constituents of Harris County myself and my first assistant Treasurer Douglas Ray we are committed to working with Commissioner's Court and our district clerk to ensure that our constituents receive these funds in a timely fashion so that we can have the best diverse jury service as possible so as your Harris County Treasurer we are committed to working with the individuals of Harris County to serve our constituents well had one of a thought I would certainly be sensitive to a pilot program like they did in Washington state to get it up and we could do what that would arpa money part of the challenge is as you know we went to no new Revenue two cycles in a row and you know that's uh that there's no shortage of brain ideas but there's really a shortage of funding but assuming some areas where we have committed arpa dollars we may not be able to spend it all in that timetable so let's work with our staffs and see what we can come up with and as a pilot program as long as it and then we can look at it the way they did in Washington state and see how much it increases it on a pilot basis that may be a place of money to come in all right all right that sounds great I appreciate it I look forward to working with you on it as we've said the twenty dollars for the first day is a very necessary First Step but when you lose a day's wages that twenty dollars is not going to be sufficient to compensate and make it possible for you to show up so we will work together uh to make it where everyone can afford to show up because you can't be on that jury panel if you're not there on day one so with that we conclude our presentation if anyone has any questions we'll be happy to take them do you worry about it you know the starting September 1st you worry about people that are on a jury the week before being a little a little bummed out I'm sure they will be but everything has to start somewhere and you cannot do it retroactively he'll get over it they will come back yeah they'll get called again this is for the district and County courts not for the municipal courts are federal it's just district and County and we don't do the municipal courts we do not be a good question to ask our friends okay ask our friends over there this is sitting civil family juvenile criminal misdemeanor and felony as well as the County Civil and probate any juror coming in this building yes yeah expect the numbers to increase that participation we certainly hope so part of my budget request for the new fiscal year is to ask Commissioners court for some money to do a jury Outreach campaign because as the commissioner said if people don't know about a pay increase it's not going to have an impact so we've got to get the word out we depend upon you and your participation in helping us do that as well but we'll be doing a lot of community outreach to make sure people know that the pay rate has increased and Son you'll give you the talking points so you can blow it up and go compares to those other places around the country but you know more to pay more better pay I think will increase the diversity of the Euro pools and that increases the fairness in our system no this that we're introducing today the twenty dollars for first day and 58 for subsequent days is enacted legislative on a permanent basis and State's paying for it and the state's paying for a change yes and we're happy to dismiss those funds to the constituents in the timely fashion how much money you become savings well we weren't doing it we're paying exactly what we've been paying the state is adding to it to increase the pay rates what does it say about the state that they saw that this is something that is necessary to help counties such as Harris County be able to get more diverse jurors it says in this instance the state did something right exactly so I want to give the State Credit uh for doing it uh and that's not the case with most things that have passed through this legislative session but with this one I applaud them thank you yes you have any questions you see me clapping greatly what they did and we have worked hard we've talked and advocated and lobbied for this over the last year and a half so I was afraid it was not going to happen and then at the very last minute it slipped through on the omnis bill and we're thrilled with it it'll help with backlogs it will you know most people don't show up for the money by the way most people but some do and it is a burden for people it is what it keeps some people from showing up so we've got that will help I beg your pardon we asked for more than what we got but we're pleased with what we got so um we uh when I first started advocating for this I was advocating for sixty dollars on the first day and eighty dollars for subsequent days and I suspect in 2005 some bright staffer in my office looked to see what was the largest amount paid around the country but that side work should ask what you want you to take what you can get exactly what takes so long would it cost everything up and it takes so long to increase those drug periods it's not a lot of unfortunately sentiment a lot not a lot of sympathy for doing it uh you know it was interesting back in 2005 to have a major law firm in the state take an interest in it but it's not the kind of issue where you normally have a week the life is our paid friends who are pushing for legislation in space it's sort of like the you know Counties have to pick up the bulk of the funding for Indigent defense although it's a constitutional requirement Texas is one of those states where they passed that burden on to local government I think I mentioned that Illinois I think that's a state I mentioned doesn't not put any money in but the state of Illinois does California does fund the industry of Defense you know that's a good trade-off on the state level for the for the counties but you know it's uh you know it's I don't know the fiscal number one you can pull it up I don't know what the fiscal note is for the bill you have to have a fiscal note to pass it but uh it's well worth it it's important you and I don't know who the senator was I saw my notes that had representative leech I used to remind house members when I was in the Senate it's just as much work to get the bill out of the other chamber you know Harris County also got three new felony courts in this legislative session that the county has to fund and pay for and that's very much needed and much like you were asking about it 2005 was the last jury pay increase it's been decades and since we've gotten any new Courts for Harris County we got one last session and three this session it takes time to make these improvements and changes I assure you we're going to pay more for those courts than the state's going to pay for sure but we'll take it any way we can get it all right thank you all thank you thank you jury the large amounts or anything do you think take a picture the increase in jury pay will help I don't know how much and I wouldn't speculate and try to guess on it it would just be a guess but it is a challenge getting people to show up with your reports okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for being here thank you very much thank you thank you for being here have a great trip thank you and be safe would any of you like an individual interview with Miss Burgess or do we have what you need thank you for coming

Channel: KHOU 11

Views: 579

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Id: pgeOV6jFcb4

Length: 24min 0sec (1440 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 16 2023