27.04.060 Trial Jurors.
The Court Administrator shall prepare a list of eligible jurors each year. The list must be comprised of all Cowlitz Indian Tribal members who are 18 years of age or older and reside within a radius of 150 miles outside the exterior boundaries of the Cowlitz Indian Reservation. Tribal Council members, attorneys at law, Tribal police officers, Tribal Court staff, and persons employed in the prosecutor’s office shall be exempted from the pool of potential jurors.
(1) To summon potential jurors, the Court Administrator will randomly select 25 names from the list of eligible jurors and shall summon each of the 25 persons by first class mail or personal service. The summons must provide notice of the date, time and place of the jury trial. The Court Administrator shall maintain proof of service for the jury summons. Jury summons properly addressed to the person’s current mailing address will be presumed to have reached the addressee. Persons who do not appear after proper notice of jury service shall be subject to contempt of court.
(2) After summoning jurors and before trial, or at a time designated by the Court, the Administrator shall notify the Court and counsel of the names of the members of the jury pool appearing for selection.
(A) The Court itself may conduct the examination of prospective trial jurors and afterwards may permit the prosecution and counsel for the defendant to supplement the examination with voir dire in accordance with subsection (2)(B) of this section, or the Court may conduct all of the examination and ask any questions supplied by either the prosecution or the defendant as it deems proper.
(B) The prosecution and defense, in that order, will have the opportunity to ask questions of the prospective jurors as they are individually called upon by the Court to determine if there is any reason why a particular candidate should not be seated as a juror. Both parties may question the validity of any question asked by the other party of a prospective juror and the Court may rule on the validity of the question.
(C) When both parties have completed their voir dire questioning, they shall confer privately with the judge and state all challenges they have to make against any prospective juror.
(a) Both parties will have three peremptory challenges with which they may disqualify any prospective juror and will not need to state any reason for doing so. If there is more than one defendant, three additional peremptory challenges may be granted per defendant. Peremptory challenges are in the sole discretion of the party making the challenge so long as the challenge is not based on race, ethnicity, or sex.
(b) Each party shall have unlimited challenges for cause. The judge hearing the particular case in the Court may decide on the bias of potential jurors on challenges for cause. The decision whether or not to dismiss a potential juror for cause will be made on the basis of whether or not the judge believes the individual challenged could give both parties a fair trial.
(3) After the six members and one alternate have been selected and seated, the Court shall administer an oath by which the jury swears that it will act fairly and impartially in the trial it will hear.
(4) Every person required to attend court for selection or service as a juror shall be entitled to juror fees, in an amount determined by the Court, for each day of selection or serving on jury duty, provided that the juror does not receive compensation through their employer.
(5) A person may be excused from serving on a jury upon good cause shown.