RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota’s Supreme Court has tossed out a judicial order that for years excluded residents of Oglala Lakota County from serving on juries.
The county is within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and nearly all residents are Native American. The county doesn’t have state court facilities and instead contracts with Fall River County for legal proceedings.
Judge Jeff Davis in 2009 issued the order excluding Oglala Lakota County residents from serving on juries, referencing a 2001 tribal proclamation declaring state court actions such as jury summonses were unenforceable on the reservation. Davis was presiding judge of the state’s Seventh Judicial Circuit at the time.
The state Supreme Court ruled last week Davis’ order violated state laws preserving the right of citizens to serve on juries and allowing plaintiffs to have cases tried in the county where their case originates, the Rapid City Journal reports (https://bit.ly/1RL4QKT ).
The challenge to the order came out of an Oglala Lakota County woman’s lawsuit against a dialysis company. The woman’s attorney filed a motion to summon jurors from Oglala Lakota County, but the judge in the suit denied the motion, citing Davis’ order. Her attorney and another Rapid City attorney appealed to the Supreme Court.
The court’s unanimous opinion, written by Chief Justice David Gilbertson, said Davis’ order “clearly went beyond the confines of the presiding judge’s statutory authority.”
“The circuit court’s ruling, effectively prohibiting the entire population of a South Dakota county from participating in their civic right to be a juror, is a structural defect we cannot allow,” the court’s opinion says.
Even if the order was lawful, the opinion says, circuit courts have to submit proposed rule changes on jury selection to the state Supreme Court.
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Information from: Rapid City Journal, https://www.rapidcityjournal.com
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