THE Superior Court held a special proceeding to draw new jury panels for Rota and Tinian on June 15, 2022.
The drawing for the Rota jury panel was held at 3 p.m., while the drawing for the Tinian jury panel was held at 3:30 p.m. in courtroom 220A.
In his order, Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho noted that during the drawing of jury panels, the Rota and Tinian courthouses remained open to the public, and public notices for the process were posted in conspicuous places on both islands.
Deputy Clerk Delia Barcinas appeared via Microsoft Teams for the Rota courthouse, and Deputy Clerk Joann Pangelinan appeared via Microsoft Teams for the Tinian courthouse.
Clerk of Court Patrick Diaz randomly selected jury panels 22AR to 22IR from the total of 1,496 names of registered voters on Rota, and he also randomly selected the jury panels 22AT to 22IT from the total of 1,388 names of registered voters on Tinian.
Each panel consists of 150 persons based on the election commission voter list, Variety learned.
The commissioning of new jury panels for Rota and Tinian were required by law. On Saipan the jury panel was last updated through the same process in August 2021.
As required by 7 CMC 3103 & 3104 the following are exempted from serving on a jury:
1) The governor, lt. governor, and mayors;
2) Elected or appointed members of CNMI boards, commissions, councils, and other governing bodies of semi-autonomous and autonomous agencies;
3) Elected members of the CNMI Legislature;
4) Law enforcement officers from the Department of Public Safety;
5) Justices, judges and managers of the CNMI judiciary;
6) All individuals who have served as a juror in previous trials; and
7) Those who have not resided in the CNMI for more than a year.
Judge Camacho also granted a motion to remove deceased individuals from the Rota and Tinian jury panels as verified and confirmed through the vital statistics of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.
