Panel split over restoring jury eligibility for people with past convictions

Delegate Kent Roberson introduced House Bill 414 to reduce the pool of Marylanders permanently barred from jury service because of prior convictions punishable by a year or more.

Public Defender Office counsel and reentry advocates said the bill would return civic duties to people who have paid their debt to society, improve jury representativeness and aid reentry. "Where one third of all Americans have a criminal record," the public defender's office said in testimony, restoring jury eligibility would enfranchise communities disproportionately affected by incarceration.

Research and reentry experts at the University of Baltimore and community organizations testified that Maryland excludes a larger share of its population from jury pools than most states, and urged the committee to treat jury service as a restored civic right after sentence completion.

Opponents, including Howard County State's Attorney Rich Gibson and other prosecutors, said the courtroom depends on impartial jurors who can judge facts without lived experiences that could create bias. Gibson said juries must be neutral and warned that former offenders' lived experiences about incarceration could influence verdicts; he advocated retaining the current disqualifications.

Much of the hearing focused on how voir dire screens for bias, how often jurors are struck for cause, and whether expanded eligibility would meaningfully diversify panels in practice. Prosecutors said voir dire and preemptory strikes are already used extensively to exclude biased individuals, while supporters argued systemic exclusion is the greater injustice.

The committee heard emotional testimony from reentry leaders and survivors of incarceration who argued jury service aids reintegration, but did not vote on the bill during the hearing.