Page images
PDF
EPUB

the name or names of any man, or men on such Jury, whom both 26 Vic. c. 6. parties may consent to withdraw, or who may be justly challenged or excused by the Court, to be set aside, and another name or names to be drawn from the box, and to try the issue with the residue of such original Jury, and with such man or men whose name or names shall be so drawn, and so toties quoties as long as any issue remains to be tried.

XIII. That it shall and may be lawful for Her Majesty's Justices emJustices of the General Court, or any one of them, upon motion powered to made upon behalf of the Queen, or upon behalf of any prosecutor, order Special Juries to be Plaintiff or Defendant in any case whatsoever, whether civil or struck in cercriminal, excepting only cases of treason or felony depending in tain cases. the said General Court, and the said Justices are hereby authorized and required, in any of the cases before-mentioned, to order and appoint a Special Jury to be struck for the trial of any issue joined in any of the said cases, and every Jury so struck shall be the Jury returned for the trial of such issue.

XIV. That it shall be the duty of the Chief Justice and the Duty of JusAssistant Justice, or either of them, immediately after the list of tices to select Jurors for the year shall have been returned, as required by this qualified perAct, to select therefrom the names of all Merchants, Esquires, Jurors for one sons as Special and other persons whom such Chief Justice or Assistant Justice shall deem qualified to serve as Special Jurors, and the persons so selected shall form the panel of Special Jurors for the ensuing twelve months, and the panel so formed shall not be altered during such period.

year.

relative

thereto.

XV. That the names of the Jurors selected as aforesaid shall Duty of Clerk be entered in a book to be called the Special Jury Book, and the of the Crown Clerk shall annually, after making up such Special Jury Book, cause the names of the parties entered therein to be written on distinct pieces of parchment or paper, being all as nearly as may be of equal size, and after the same shall have been so written, shall put the same together in a separate drawer or box, and there safely keep the same, to be used for the purposes hereinafter mentioned.

XVI. That whenever a Special Jury shall be ordered to be Mode of struck, the Clerk of the Crown shall appoint a time and place for striking Spe the nomination of such Special Jury, notice of which time and cial Juries. place shall be given to all the parties in any of the cases aforesaid, and the Clerk of the Crown, at the time and place appointed, shall in the presence of all the parties in any of the cases aforesaid and of their attornies, (if they respectively choose to attend, or if the said parties or their attornies all or any of them do not attend then in their absence,) put all the said pieces of parchment or paper whereon are written the names of men qualified and liable to serve as aforesaid, as Special Jurors, into a box to be by him provided for that purpose, and after having shaken them together, shall draw out of the said box forty-eight of the said pieces of parchment or paper one after another, and shall, as each piece is drawn, read aloud the name thereon written, and if at the time of so reading any name, either party, or his, her or their attorney, shall object that the man whose name shall have been so read is in any manner incapacitated from serving on the said Jury, and shall also then and there prove the same to the satisfaction of the said Clerk of the Crown, such name shall be set aside and the said Clerk of

26 Vic. c. 6. the Crown shall in like manner draw out another piece of parchment or paper and read aloud the name thereon written, which name may in like manner be set aside and other names resorted to according to the mode of proceeding herein before described for the purpose of supplying names in the places of those set aside until the whole number of forty-eight names not liable to be set aside shall be completed, and if it shall so happen that the whole number of forty-eight names cannot be obtained from the Special Jurors' list, then and in such case the said Clerk of the Crown shall fairly and indifferently take such a number of names from the general list of Jurors in addition to those already taken from the Special Jurors' list as shall be required to make up the full number of forty-eight names, all and every of which forty-eight names shall in such case be equally deemed and taken to be those of Special Jurors, and the said Clerk of the Crown shall afterwards made out a list of the forty-eight names and deliver a copy thereof to each party, who shall each strike thereout twelve names, and then return the said lists to the said Clerk of the Crown, and after the lists of Jurors shall be so reduced, a writ of venire facias shall be issued from the aforesaid Court, directed to the Provost Marshal or his lawful deputy, commanding the said ProvostMarshal or his deputy, as aforesaid, to summon the twenty-four persons whose names remain in such reduced list, and the said Marshal shall then proceed to summon the said Jurors in the same and the like manner as is already herein directed to be observed in the summoning of other Jurors to serve in the General Court aforesaid.

Party applying for a Special Jury to pay fees, &c., &c.

Right of the
Crown and

any person
charged with
felony respec-
tively to re-
quire cause to
be tried by a
Jury drawn
from Special
Jury panel.

Mode of appointing

viewers.

XVII. That the party who shall apply for a Special Jury shall pay the fees for striking such Jury, and all the expenses occasioned by the trial of the cause by the same, and shall not have any further or other allowance for the same upon taxation of costs than such party would be entitled to in case the cause had been tried by a common Jury, unless the Judge before whom the cause is tried shall immediately after the verdict, or in case of a nonsuit immediately after the entry of non-suit, certify under his hand upon the back of the record, that the same was a cause proper to be tried by a Special Jury.

XVIII. That in any case of felony to be tried in the said General Court, the Attorney-General or other officer representing the Crown and the accused party shall each have the right to require that the case shall be tried by a Jury drawn from the Special Jury list, and upon motion to that effect being made the Court shall order accordingly, and the Clerk of the Crown shall thereupon draw from the Special Jury list the names of thirty-six persons then being within the limits of one or other of the parishes in the Island of New Providence, and the persons whose names are so drawn shall form the Jury panel out of which shall be chosen the Jury to try such cause; and such persons shall be summoned and their attendance enforced in the same and the like manner as in the case of persons drawn to serve from the general panel of Jurors: Provided that no person exempted by this Act from serving on Common Juries shall be liable to be drawn to serve on any Jury ordered to be drawn under this clause.

XIX. That in cases depending in any of the Courts of Record aforesaid, where a view shall be applied for and allowed by any

such Court, the same mode of appointing viewers shall be observed, 26 Vic. c. 6. and all subsequent proceedings shall be had as near as may be to the practice of the Courts of Assize and Nisi Prius in England.

Juries to be

Courts.

XX. That the same mode of drawing men to serve on Juries Same mode of shall be observed in other Courts of these Islands, as by this Act drawing men is directed to be observed in the General Court, the same writs to serve on shall issue, the same summonses be made, and the same practice observed in all followed in all subsequent proceedings relative to the said Juries. XXI. That upon the trial of any issue, civil, or criminal, in any of the Courts of Record at Nassau, the same and the like challenges of Jurors shall be allowed as would be allowed by the Common and Statute Law of England, upon the trial of a like issue in Her Majesty's Courts of Queen's Bench and Common Pleas at Westminster, and further that the want of qualification under this Act shall also be a good cause of challenge.

Challenges of
Jurors allowed.

drawn.

XXII. That when a full Jury shall not appear before any of Talesmen, the Courts of Record at Nassau, or when after appearance of a full when and how Jury by challenge of any of the parties, the Jury is likely to remain untaken from the default of Jurors, every such Court, upon request made for the Queen, by any one thereto authorized or assigned by the Court, or on request made by the parties, Plaintiff or Defendant, or their respective Attornies in any action or suit, whether civil or criminal, shall name and appoint as often as need shall require, so many of such other able and qualified men then present at the said Court, or to be elsewhere found in the Island of New Providence as shall make up a full Jury, and shall add and annex the names of such men duly qualified as shall be present or can be found as aforesaid to the former panel, and the Queen, by any one so authorized or assigned as aforesaid, and all and every the parties aforesaid, shall and may, in each of the cases aforesaid, have their respective challenges to the Jurors so added and annexed, and the Court shall proceed to the trial of every such issue with those Jurors who were before empanelled, together with the talesmen so newly added and annexed, as if all the said Jurors had been returned upon the original writ of venire facias.

tending after being duly summoned.

XXIII. That if any man having been duly summoned to attend Penalty on on any kind of Jury in any of the Courts herein-before men- Jurors not attioned shall not attend in pursuance of such summons, or being thrice called shall not answer to his name, or if any such man or any talesman, after having been called shall be present but not appear, or after his appearance shall wilfully withdraw himself from the presence of the Court, the Court shall set such fine upon every such man or talesman so making default (unless some reasonable excuse therefor shall be proved by oath or affidavit), as the Court shall think meet; Provided always, that the said fine shall in no case for one offence exceed the sum of five pounds.

XXIV. That nothing in this Act contained shall extend or Right of aliens be construed to extend to deprive any alien charged with any to be tried by felony or misdemeanor in any of the before-mentioned Courts of a Jury de methe right of being tried by a Jury de medietate linguæ, but that dietate linguæ. on the prayer of every such alien so charged, the Provost Marshal, or other proper officer, shall, by command of the Court, return for one-half of the Jury a competent number of aliens, if so many there be in the aforesaid Island of New Providence, and if not then so many aliens as shall be found in the said Island, and that

26 Vic. c. 6. no such alien Juror shall be liable to be challenged for want of freehold or of any other qualification required by this Act, but every such alien may be challenged for any other cause in like manner as if he were qualified by this Act.

Expenses

provided for.

XXV. That all expenses incurred under this Act in making under this Act out Jury lists, or in procuring Jury boxes or books, or in performing any act by this Act required to be performed, and for the payment of which provision has not been made by any other Act of Assembly, shall be defrayed out of the Public Treasury of these Islands, by warrant in the usual manner.

Nothing herein contained to

alter, &c., any

power pos

Court unless same is repealed or

altered by this Act.

Certain Acts of Assembly repealed.

XXVI. That nothing herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to alter, abridge or affect any power or authority which any Court or Judge now hath, or any practice or form in regard to trials by Jury, Jury Process, Juries or Jurors, except in those cases only where any such power or authority, practice or form, is repealed or altered by this Act, or is or shall be inconsistent with any of the provisions thereof.

XXVII. That this Act may be cited for all purposes as "The Jury Act, 1863."

XXVIII. That from and after the day on which the first Jury list shall be returned to the office of the Clerk of the Crown, under the previous provisions of this Act; the 4 William 4, c. 13; the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sections of 5 William 4, c. 18; the 8 Victoria, c. 18; 11 Victoria, c. 20; and the 6th section 11 Victoria, c. 21, shall be, and the same are hereby declared to be repealed.

[blocks in formation]

Exempts certain persons from serving on Juries.

29 Vic. c. 32. An Act to amend the Jury Act, 1863.

(Assented to 11th May, 1866.)

I. That all persons attached to the Light-house service of the Colony, whether holding office under the Imperial or Colonial Government, the officers of the Board of Public Works, the Clerk

of the Nassau Market, the Librarian of the Nassau Library and 29 Vic. c. 32. the Inspector of Nuisances, shall be, and they are hereby exempted from serving on Juries, under the Act to which this Act is an amendment.

II. Every male inhabitant of the parishes of Christ Church, Qualification St. Matthew, or St. Anne, between the ages of twenty-one and of Jurors. sixty years (except as by the said Act excepted), who shall be possessed of Real and Personal Estate, of the combined value of 100l., or of personal Estate alone of that value, shall be qualified, and except exempted by the said Act or this Act, be liable to serve as a Juror under the said Act.

1867.

E

« EelmineJätka »