ESSEX COUNTY WANTS TO BACKGROUND CHECK JURORS?

You cannot list all of the problem this causes, not to mention invasions of privacy:

From NJ.com:

ESSEX COUNTY — Some prospective jurors in Essex County are hiding or downright lying about their criminal past.

Not all potential jurors are lying under questioning, but enough are doing so — and getting selected for trials — that Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray believes something should be done.

In a motion to be heard today in Superior Court in Newark, Murray will demand that prosecutors be given the birth dates of all potential jurors before they are questioned, in order to conduct criminal background checks. Murray cited several instances of jurors misleading or lying to authorities about their criminal histories as proof of a growing concern.

But in a vigorous opposition to the motion, the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender — with support from the state chapter of the ACLU — contends the request intrudes on individual privacy rights and that state statute doesn’t support such a change.

Access to birth dates won’t infringe on privacy, Murray said, because authorities should already know the information. Anyone with a criminal conviction cannot serve on a jury.

If Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello approves the motion, Essex County would become the only jurisdiction in the state where prosecutors are given that right, joining several other states like Massachusetts, Ohio, Alaska and Iowa.