A bill unanimously passed earlier this month by the Virginia House of Delegates and now awaiting Senate approval may allow college students to seek exemptions from jury duty.
Commonwealth law, as it now stands, only allows for a student exemption if the student attends school more than 50 miles from his or her home district, said Kevin Herrity, assistant to the legislative aide for Del. Thomas D. Gear, R-Hampton, the sponsor of HB 2045. The bill would remove this clause, allowing any full-time college student to claim an exemption. Jury pools randomly draw from voting registration lists in each jurisdiction.
“I think a main reason for this bill is due to the fact that students are busy and don’t have time to take part in these juries,” Herrity said.
Some college students frequently fail to respond to jury summons, forcing county sheriff’s offices to expend resources to track down and serve these students, Herrity said. This bill would eliminate many of these costs.
“I think that the positives outweigh the negatives because frivolous spending tracking these students down is a bigger issue than cutting out a few people from these juries,” first-year College student Alyssa Isidoridy said. She added, however, that students were an important demographic for juries, and said she hoped that “not all students will choose not to serve on juries.”
Second-year College student Elizabeth O’Brien said she is not worried about students removing themselves from the political process.
“There are enough people in our demographic to respond to jury summons,” she said.
The Code of Virginia currently lists eight groups of people who may claim exemptions from jury duty. Among those listed include anyone more than 70 years old, those people whose spouse is called to serve the same jury and those who are responsible during court hours for an individual younger than 16 years old. According to the Virginia State Board of Elections Web site, there are 67,359 people registered to vote in Albemarle County and 28,671 people registered to vote in Charlottesville.
HB 2045 passed the Virginia House 98-0 Feb. 3 and is currently awaiting Senate approval.
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