Older Adults Ousted From Jury Pool

The legal system has sometimes been seen as a slow-moving machine. But slow took on a whole new meaning in Cowlitz County, Wash., this fall.

Last month, county officials confirmed that as many as 3,000 residents over the age of 80 were erroneously removed from the local jury pool, evidently by a court worker with good intentions gone awry. As a result, some court proceedings were put on hold.

Meanwhile, it's unclear what will happen to cases that were heard before the jury trouble was discovered, some of which could be appealed since the juries were not selected from among all those eligible to serve.

Anderson, who declined comment when contacted, had good intentions, her colleagues say. When asked why she purged the older residents, Ron Marshall, chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney for the county, says he believes Anderson was trying to save money. Oftentimes, older residents never end up sitting on a jury because of an ailment or other hardship, so by purging these individuals from the jury pool, Anderson probably reasoned that the county would save time, money and paperwork, Marshall says.

However, "the law doesn't give [Anderson] or anyone else the authority to remove someone just because of age," Marshall says. "There aren't a lot of 80-year-old defendants, but they are part of the community and we don't start excluding them just because they got too old."

These days, Cowlitz County's legal system is getting back to normal, with all eligible jurors returned to the pool, Marshall says, but the holdup will be felt for some time as court workers try to insert delayed trials into an already packed schedule.

Michelle Diament is a frequent contributor to the AARP Bulletin.