Gov. Phil Murphy said he supports ending New Jersey’s prohibition on jury service for those with felony convictions, which is among the strictest in the nation. Legislation now in the Statehouse would do that, excluding people with convictions for murder or aggravated sexual assault.
Gov. Phil Murphy announced his support Wednesday for legislation that would restore jury service rights to New Jerseyans with felony convictions.
The bill would allow New Jerseyans convicted of nearly all indictable offenses — what New Jersey calls felonies — to serve on juries, a change that would add more than half-million residents to the state’s jury pool, Murphy said at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice’s annual gala at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.