Title 12

The jury commission shall maintain a trial court jury box and shall place therein the names or identifying numbers of all prospective jurors drawn from the master jury box who are not disqualified from which grand juries and petit juries are drawn as provided by law. (Acts 1978, …

(a) No qualified prospective juror is exempt from jury service, except as provided in subsection (b). (b) An individual who is 80 years of age or older may submit a written statement to the court requesting that he or she be permanently exempt from jury service. On receipt of the…

(a) Upon the request of a prospective juror pursuant to this section, the court shall determine, on the basis of information provided during an interview with the prospective juror or based on other competent evidence, whether the prospective juror should be excused from jury ser…

(a) Individuals scheduled to appear for jury service have the right to postpone the date of their initial appearance for jury service one time only. When requested, postponements shall be granted, upon consideration of the following: (1) The juror has not previously been granted …

All records and papers compiled and maintained by the jury commission in connection with the selection and service of jurors shall be preserved by the jury commission for four years after the master jury box used in their selection is emptied and refilled and for any longer perio…

When jurors, grand or petit, are needed for court, the judge, or where there are more than one, then any one of the judges of the court, shall at a time within his or her discretion, but at least 20 days prior to the date on which the prospective jurors are to serve, draw or caus…

If for any reason the judge of the court fails to draw the juries as required in Section 12-16-70 before the 20 days mentioned therein, the clerk of such court shall notify the presiding judge and he shall, upon receiving such notification, immediately draw the juries for the nex…

(a) Every order to summon jurors, except as otherwise provided in this article, shall be executed by the sheriff by either of the following methods at the election of the sheriff: (1) By giving personal notice to every such person or by leaving a written notice at the place of re…

The court shall require the names to be called from the venire list of all persons who have been served with a summons to appear in court that day for service as jurors and whose service has not been previously excused or postponed. The court may hear any excuses not previously h…

(a) Once selected, a juror shall serve on the jury for the duration of the trial unless excused by the presiding judge. (b) A juror who has served on a petit jury in this state shall not be summoned to serve again as a petit juror in any court of this state for 24 months followin…

Whenever there are not enough qualified jurors in attendance upon the court to form the juries required, the judge of the court shall cause to be provided from the master jury list names of as many prospective jurors as the judge deems necessary to complete the empaneling of all …

Whenever a jury is required to try any issue in a probate court of the county, other than inquisition proceedings regarding mental illness, the probate judge shall procure the jury box and key thereto and shall draw from the jury box as many names as he may think necessary, in no…

No objection can be taken to any venire of jurors except for fraud in drawing or summoning the jurors. (Acts 1909, No. 227, p. 305; Code 1923, §8637; Code 1940, T. 30, §46.)

If the sheriff fails to summon any jurors drawn or any person summoned fails or refuses to attend the trial or there is any mistake in the name of any person drawn or summoned, none nor all of these grounds shall be sufficient to quash the venire or continue the case. (Acts 1909,…

If any person summoned as a grand or petit juror shall fail to obey such summons without good excuse, to be determined by the court, he or she shall be deemed guilty of a contempt of court; and, if no sufficient excuse is rendered for him or her at the time of his or her default,…

Any person who shall unlawfully place in or withdraw from the jury box any name or names of persons or destroy, conceal or remove such jury box or place on or erase from the jury roll the name of any person or destroy, mutilate, conceal or remove such jury roll shall be guilty of…

Any person who attempts, otherwise than by bribery, to influence any jury commissioner or any other officer charged with the execution of any duty concerning the selecting, drawing, summoning, empaneling or organizing of jurors or juries shall, on conviction, be fined not more th…

Any person who does an act calculated to affect the fair drawing of a jury and with intent to affect the same shall, on conviction, be fined not less than $200.00 nor more than $1,000.00 and may also be imprisoned in the county jail for not more than six months, and if such perso…

Any sheriff or other officer having a discretion in summoning jurors who summons any person with intent to produce a result favorable to any party having a case in the court in which such person is summoned shall, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than…

Any sheriff who connives at the commission of the offense prohibited by Section 12-16-87 by any constable, bailiff or deputy sheriff shall, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than two nor more than five years. (Code 1852, §29; Code 1867, §3570; Code 187…

If the sheriff or any deputy shall negligently fail to summon any person to serve as a juror whom he is commanded to summon, he shall be held and deemed guilty of a contempt of court and shall be fined not more than $100.00 in every case where the person is not so served, and he …

(a) The provisions of this article as to the selection, drawing, summoning or empaneling of jurors are directory merely and not mandatory. (b) The jurors selected, drawn, summoned and empaneled under the provisions of this article, whether at an earlier or later day than required…

(a) In every criminal case the jury shall be drawn, selected and empaneled as follows: Upon the trial by jury in the circuit courts of any person charged with a felony, including a capital felony, a misdemeanor, or violation, the court shall require a strike list or lists to be c…

In case two or more persons are tried jointly, the district attorney shall strike one, and each defendant shall have the right to strike off one name, and they shall continue thus to strike off names until only 12 jurors remain, and the 12 jurors thus selected shall be the jury c…

In all civil actions triable by jury, either party may demand a struck jury and must thereupon be furnished by the clerk with a list of 24 jurors in attendance upon the court, from which a jury must be obtained by the parties or their attorneys alternately striking one from the l…

Notwithstanding any provision of Title 12, Chapter 16, the presiding circuit judge, with the consent of the circuit judges of the court, may elect to utilize the following alternate juror selection and qualification plan after notice to the Administrative Director of Courts, whic…

Any of the procedures established in Title 12, Chapter 16, governing the selecting, qualifying, drawing, summoning, and empaneling of juries (including but not limited to any one or all of the following procedures: compilation and maintenance of the master list; the combined qual…

It is good ground for challenge of a juror by either party: (1) That the person has not been a resident householder or freeholder of the county for the last preceding six months. (2) That he is not a citizen of Alabama. (3) That he has been indicted within the last 12 months for …

Of the causes of challenge specified in Section 12-16-150, the first four may be proved by the oath of the person summoned or by other evidence, the fifth and sixth by other testimony only, the seventh by the oath of the person alone and the others as the court may direct. (Code …

On the trial for any offense which may be punished capitally or by imprisonment in the penitentiary, it is a good cause of challenge by the state that the person would refuse to impose the death penalty regardless of the evidence produced or has a fixed opinion against penitentia…

The following oath shall be administered by the clerk, in the presence of the court, to each of the petit jurors: “You do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that you will well and truly try all issues which maybe submitted to you during the present session (or week, a…

The following oath shall be administered to the foreman of the grand jury: “You, as foreman of the grand jury of _____ county, do solemnly swear (or affirm as the case may be) that you will diligently inquire and true presentment make of all indictable offenses given you in charg…

After the oath prescribed in Section 12-16-171 has been administered to the foreman, the following oath shall be administered to the other grand jurors: “The same oath which your foreman has taken, on his part, you and each of you, on your respective parts, shall well and truly o…

No criminal case taken by appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals shall be reversed because of any defect in the administration of the oath to any grand or petit jury, unless the record in the case discloses the fact that some objection was taken in the court below during the pro…

(a) There shall be empaneled in every county having less than 50,000 population not less than two grand juries in every year; and, when they have completed their labors, in its discretion, the court may permit them to take a recess subject to the call of the judge of the circuit …

It shall be the duty of the grand jury to determine at least once annually the condition of the county jail in regard to its sufficiency for the safekeeping of prisoners and their accommodation and health and to inquire into the manner in which the same has been kept since the la…

It shall be the duty of the grand jury to examine into the condition of the county treasury and the bonds of all county officers with regard to their correctness and sufficiency and to report upon the same, to inquire into all indictable offenses committed or triable within the c…

It shall be the duty of the sheriff to deliver the book in which he enters his accounts with the state for feeding prisoners to the foreman of the grand jury of the circuit court of such county upon the first day of each session thereof, and it shall be the duty of the grand jury…

It shall be the duty of the district attorney and grand jury at every session of the circuit court to examine the fee book of the probate judge and ascertain if illegal fees have been received. (Code 1852, §3068; Code 1867, §3539; Code 1876, §5022; Code 1886, §4344; Code 1896, §5…

It shall be the duty of the district attorney and the grand jury at every session of the circuit court to examine the books and papers of the county superintendent of education. (Code 1886, §4335; Code 1896, §5031; Code 1907, §7292; Code 1923, §8674; Code 1940, T. 30, §81.)

The district attorney and the grand jury shall be entitled to free access, at all proper hours, to the county jail, to the office of the county treasurer and to examination, without charge, of all records and other papers in any of the county offices connected in any way with the…

The district attorney, the foreman of the grand jury or the clerk of the court, on the application of the grand jury, must issue subpoenas for any witnesses whom they may require to give evidence before them, and if witnesses so summoned fail to attend, the subpoenas must be retu…

District attorneys shall have authority, and it shall be their duty, to issue a subpoena for any person whom they may desire to appear before the grand jury to give evidence of any violation of the law. (Code 1852, §85; Code 1867, §3627; Code 1876, §4215; Code 1886, §4348; Code 1…

Witnesses before the grand jury may be sworn by the district attorney or foreman. A list of all witnesses summoned and in attendance before such jury during each session shall be kept by the foreman, and he shall give to each of such witnesses a certificate, stating the number of…

In the investigation of a charge for any indictable offense, the grand jury can receive no other evidence than is given by witnesses before them or furnished by legal documentary evidence, and any witness may be examined and compelled to testify as to any offense within his knowl…

A grand juror may be required by any court to disclose the testimony of any witness examined before the grand jury for the purpose of ascertaining whether it is consistent with the testimony given by the witness before the court or on a charge of perjury against him. (Code 1852, …