Report reveals challenges in jury selection for pilot program

Courts piloting a program that selects jurors from a pool of residents have found it difficult in some cases, a Supreme People's Court (SPC) report said Thursday.

It takes a lot of work for courts to collect candidates' information, ask for their opinions and assess their eligibility, as there is a lack of updated information about residents or voters, Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said while deliberating the report at an ongoing bi-monthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

A large proportion of candidates are reluctant to serve as jurors, Zhou added.

Meanwhile, in certain areas, it is difficult for jurors to participate because of transportation, the report showed.

Nevertheless, since its launch in April 2015, the two-year pilot program has seen progress.

By the end of April this year, 50 courts in 10 provincial regions including Beijing, Hebei, Shandong and Chongqing had selected more than 13,000 jurors. They had participated in hearings concerning 10,002 criminal cases, 59,616 civil cases and 4,711 administrative cases.

The report called for better information sharing between courts and public security agencies.

It also suggested that new ways of selecting jurors be explored, which could be based on region, population, case and candidates' professions. Endi