Female jurors

I refer to the article entitled "Man shot his wife because she ignored him, jurors hear" (November 18).

Please note that of the 30 foremen and 156 jurors drawn by ballot from the list of jurors for 2003 to serve in November, 65 were women. They were drawn in open court and in the presence of the judge in the month of October.

Forty-one males and 27 females filed an application requesting to be exempted from jury service either due to the nature of their employment or due to serious health conditions, or, in the case of most females, due to the fact they had to look after young children. There were also a number of persons who could not be served with the summons to appear.

In the days prior to the trial by jury, the court exempted 25 males and 25 females for any of the above-mentioned reasons. Therefore, on the day of the trial, there were 59 males and 17 females who were still eligible as potential jurors.

For the formation of the jury, 29 ballots of parchment were drawn. Three males were peremptorily challenged by the prosecution and three females were challenged by the defence. The court further excluded three males and a female for a just cause. The female was excluded because she was a friend of the accused's family.

The law allows the prosecution and the defence to challenge no more than three persons from serving as jurors without giving any reason while the court may, for a good reason, exclude any person.

A female and five males, whose names were drawn but failed to appear, were found guilty of contempt of court and were each fined Lm100.