Problems with the Use of Computers for Selecting Jury Panels Author(s): George Marsaglia Source: Jurimetrics, Vol. 41, No. 4 (SUMMER 2001), pp. 425-427 Published by: American Bar Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29762720 Accessed: 02-06-2017 15:03 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms American Bar Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Jurimetrics This content downloaded from 128.118.10.59 on Fri, 02 Jun 2017 15:03:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Problems with the Use of Computers for Selecting Jury Panels The idea of random selection?choosing by lot?is rooted in history and law. In Ancient Greece, pieces of wood, "lots," each bearing the mark of a competitor, were placed in a helmet and drawn to determine choice battle assignments, division of plunder, and the like. A provision of Lex Pompeia Provinciea required that governors of Roman provinces be chosen by lot from eligible ex consuls. Grafton reports that choice of exiles from Germany was made by "a maner & sort of a Lot sundrie times used in the sayde lande."1 According to Plato, "[t]he ancients knew that election by lot was the most democratic of all modes of appointment."2 The tradition of choosing by lot continues, but the difficulty of collecting thousands of lots in a large "helmet" makes the task more readily suited to computer automation.