By Mike Holley
CDA Investigator in Kaufman County & Investigator Board Chair
It is often an “all hands on deck” effort to get a jury seated. Many DA and CA investigators ask potential jurors to complete questionnaires, then we use open-source media (Facebook, etc.) to peer more closely into their backgrounds. We count on them to tell the truth about their qualifications, and it is our duty to trust—but verify.
How do we determine whether potential jurors are qualified to serve? Chapter 35 of the Code of Criminal Procedure states that, among other things, a qualified juror:
• must be registered to vote,
• must never have been convicted of theft or any felony, and
• must not be under any indictment or legal accusation of theft or any felony.
It is often the duty of DA and CA investigators to run the computerized criminal history (CCH) on all prospective jurors to determine whether anyone was deceptive about one of the above three disqualifiers and to arm our prosecutors with the truth.
Is everyone in the state actually submitting CCH inquiries on prospective jurors during the selection process? If the answer is no, does the time it takes to submit those inquiries factor into play? Are some DA and CA investigators submitting an inquiry to an in-house database, checking to see if panelists have criminal history only in their own counties? Due to time constraints, are some counties accepting potential jurors’ willingness to self-disclose without any verification at all?
For the offices whose investigators are diligently requesting CCHs on prospective jurors, how long does it take? How many investigators are pulled from other duties to assist? From my 13 years of membership in TDCAA and three years serving on the Investigator Board, I have learned from my brethren across the state how a lot of us check on potential jurors’ backgrounds. Most are submitting CCH inquiries on the summonsed individuals who appear for jury duty, which is potentially hundreds of submissions. An NCIC (National Crime Information Center) inquiry of this size easily requires hours of data entry or dividing the task among multiple investigators (if an office happens to have that luxury). The act of sifting through sound-alikes and aliases alone can be a grueling task. One of our sound-alikes recently led us to believe an individual was a young white man covered in Aryan Brotherhood tattoos, only to discover the actual perspective juror was an elderly African-American woman who appeared to be the Avon lady!
DPS to the rescue
Can we submit CCH requests in a more efficient manner, and is it possible to receive a rapid response to large-batch submissions? Unequivocally, yes!
Thanks to our friends at the Texas Department of Public Safety, we have been able to submit large-batch CCH queries on the DPS Secure Site for many years. Although many offices throughout the state are utilizing this service, I have discovered that many are unaware it exists. Our investigators are usually receiving responses on the entire batch in less than five minutes. To be clear, we are submitting 150–200 criminal history requests in one batch and receiving an almost instant response.
The DPS Secure Site allows for a batch upload and provides very specific instructions regarding the required format and file type. Carefully following DPS’s instruction, our IT personnel created a file conversion for the district clerk’s list of potential jurors. Prior to this file conversion, a skilled investigator proficient in typing 120 words per minute would likely spend hours entering a massive amount of data. The batch upload practice has been a game-changer during voir dire when time is of the essence.
A couple of things to remember: The use of the DPS Secure Site is permitted to authorized users only and requires a signed user agreement. (If your office is not already using it, consider getting authorized to use the DPS Secure Site.) The DPS Secure Site does not allow a user to submit CCH inquiries on a master list of individuals summoned to appear for jury duty. Rather, users are permitted to conduct CCH searches only on the individuals who actually respond to the summons and appear for jury service and have been duly sworn in. An NCIC (national) CCH query should always be performed on the much smaller number of remaining individuals after the majority have been struck for cause or otherwise dismissed.
I will admit: The first time I read the DPS Secure Site batch upload instructions, it brought back horrible teenage memories of algebra and calculus! I humbly accept the fact that file format language is not a part of my vocabulary, and I have learned to never underestimate the superpowers possessed by IT personnel. A simple file conversion can truly give your office a tune-up for voir dire, freeing up investigators to focus on other essential tasks and better serve the office and community.
Many thanks to DPS for making this possible!
Special thanks to Kaufman County DA Investigator Austin Jones, IT Specialist Ron Rios, and the administrators of the Texas Department of Public Safety Secure Site for their contributions to this article. If you’d like more information on the content of this article, please email the author at [email protected].