SENATE PASSES GREENLEAF JUROR NOTE TAKING BILL

HARRISBURG—The Senate has approved a measure sponsored by Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf to allow jurors to take notes if the court and the parties to the case are in agreement.

Pennsylvania is one of just a few states where juror note-taking is not permitted.  The issue took on added significance when an appeal was filed in the conviction of two men late last year in a high profile York County murder case after it was discovered that a juror had taken notes. The case, which involved a racially motivated murder during 1969 race riots in the city of York, was complicated by the passage of time and the number of people involved.  Greenleaf said that the York case was a good example of the usefulness of note taking and the problem of not having a law allowing for note taking in the commonwealth.  "The vast majority of states that allow note-taking recognize that it is beneficial to justice, especially in long, complicated cases," Greenleaf said. 

Under the Senate Bill 97, the court would provide paper to the jury at the start of a trial, and the judge would instruct the jury on taking the notes and using the notes during deliberations.  The contents of the notes would not be disclosed to anyone but the jurors, and at the end of the trial, the court would collect the notes and destroy them.

Greenleaf first introduced the legislation allowing for note taking in 1997.