You have been summoned to serve on a Jury. Congratulations. Jury
Service is the only way that a person not elected to or
appointed to a position in the court system can serve in the
judicial branch of our government. The jury system is one of the
foundation stones of free men and women. Trial by jury was
something that our founding fathers felt was extremely important
and they preserved that right in the Constitution of the United
States of America and the Constitution of South Carolina. The
jurors are the sole tryers of the facts in any case, criminal
and civil, and the Constitution of South Carolina prohibits a
judge from making any comment on the facts during the trial of a
case, except when the jury is absent. In our criminal court
system there are two types of jury panels; the grand jury which
consists of 18 people and the petit jury, which consists of 12
people at the circuit court level. Both the United States and
the South Carolina Constitutions provide that no person can be
charged with a capital, or