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Show A new jury law has just gone into operation in Massachusetts, and some of its provisions are manifestly so good that they might well be embodied ir. the code of other states. For instance, one section reads, "The board of aldermen alder-men of any city shall not strike any narno from the jury list as prepared, except ex-cept of a person who has been convicted of a crime and has not been pardoned on the ground of his innocence of 6aid crime, or of a person who is not qualified quali-fied by law for service as a juror." The intention here was to do away with the favoritism by vhich men of influence were in the habit of ridding themselves of the duty of serving on juries. The penalty for a violation of the section sec-tion quoted is severe, it being provided that if any person is guilty of fraud in the drawing of jurors, either by practicing prac-ticing on the jury box previously to a draft, or in drawing a juror, or in returning re-turning into the box the name of a juror which had been lawfully drawn out and drawing or substituting another in hiB stead, or in striking a name from the jury list he shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500. An additional official safegu.ssd la thrown around the selection of jurors by the requirement that the mayor of any city shall be present at the drawing and verify by personal inspection the result of the ballots announced by the alderman appointed for the purpose. The law was framed to counteract the corrupt influence that had previously prevailed in the making up of juries in the cities of the state. New York Post |