A.  A district court may, by local rules adopted by majority vote of the judges, create and provide for the manner of administering a central jury pool for criminal and civil cases.  The combined Orleans criminal and civil district courts shall be considered a district court for purposes of this Article.

B.  Jurors selected to serve in the central jury pool may serve as jurors in either civil or criminal matters, or both.

C.  The central jury pool shall be selected at random from persons included within the general venire.  The number of persons selected to comprise the central jury pool and their length of service shall be determined pursuant to local court rules.

D.  A panel of the central jury pool shall be selected at random from persons in the central jury pool.  The number of persons selected to comprise the panel shall be determined pursuant to local court rules but the number shall be no less than three times the number of persons needed to complete the jury and in no event less than ten.

E.  The petit jury shall be selected from the one or more central jury pool panels assigned to the court.  Persons shall be called from the central jury pool panel at random.

F.  Persons selected to serve on a central jury pool panel and not selected to serve on a jury may, pursuant to local court rules, be returned to the central jury pool.

G.  The provisions of this Article supplement the methods presently provided by law for selecting jurors.

Added by Acts 1977, No. 372, §1.