Who knew? Texas is the last state in the country to have a "pick-a-pal" system in which grand jurors are selected through a list of individuals prepared by an acquaintance chosen by a local judge. Texas legislators have approved bills to end this method of selecting grand juries, the Houston Chronicle's Brian Rosenthal reports.
The difference between the state House and state Senate versions is a provision requiring courts empaneling grand juries to consider '"the county's demographics related to race, ethnicity, sex and age,'" Rosenthal further reports.
Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg won a Pulitzer for revealing the problems with Texas' method of selecting grand juries, including "instances of judges' friends sitting on multiple grand juries and potential conflicts of interest going undetected, such as allowing former police officers to hear a case in which a lawman is accused of a crime."
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
