SB 5128, sponsored by Yasmin Trudeau (D–Tacoma), contains a number of proposals to promote more diverse juries and has been making its way through the Washington State Senate this week.

The bill would require the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to:

• Provide all courts with a method to collect anonymous data on juror demographics, including race, ethnicity, age, sex, employment status, educational attainment, and income;
• Establish a workgroup to make recommendations for the creation of a childcare assistance program for individuals to eliminate the absence of childcare as a barrier to performing jury service.

The Senate Law & Justice Committee adopted an amendment, proposed by Sen. Trudeau, that would require a jury service payment to low-income jurors who qualify. This payment would be up to $125 per day in municipal courts, in addition to superior and district courts. The rate of pay for jurors is set by state law – currently, jurors must be paid between $10 and $25 per day by the local jurisdiction, which determines the rates and bears the cost of paying jurors.

While potential jurors are selected randomly from a list of all eligible local adults, the legislators proposing this bill seek to promote jury diversity by addressing some of the issues that face jurors who are women, minorities, LGBTQ, and low-income individuals who are underrepresented on juries because of the financial or childcare hardships of jury duty.

This bill was referred to Ways & Means.