The trial of a Newfoundland Doctor for trafficing in narcotics and sexual assault, has had a second mistrial over jury related incidents. The first mistrial came about when 4 jurors & 2 alternate jurors came to the judge with reasons why they could not serve:

A Newfoundland Supreme Court judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in a closely monitored case involving narcotics.

Justice James Adams made the decision Wednesday in the trial of St. John's physician Sean Buckingham over concerns that proceeding further with the case — in which four jurors and two alternates were excused — may trigger an appeal

Before new jurors could be selected, Adams said a valid argument could be made at a higher court about the detrimental impact of removing so many original jurors and their alternates.

Buckingham is being tried on 23 charges involving sexual assault and drug trafficking. Police say he was illegally dispensing prescription drugs, including the powerful narcotic OxyContin, in return for sex.

The second mistrial has to do with the validity of the jurors list:

Justice William Adams declared a mistrial for Sean Buckingham, a St. John's physician facing 23 charges of trafficking and sexual assault, when his lawyer, Randy Piercey, argued that the local jurors list is woefully out of date.

"I suppose the central issue was that no one under the age of 28 could sit on a jury in Newfoundland, because of the way the jury system was working," Piercey said.

The list of potential jurors has not been updated since 1999, and is based on data collected by the motor vehicle registration system.

Adams said he found it breathtaking that the sheriff's office had the means to update the list, but did not. The list does not include, for instance, people who don't have a driver's licence and people who moved to the St. John's area since 1999.

The Sheriff is John McDonald and he is quite new to the position. If I recall correctly, he was made Sheriff within the past 12 months after a short stint as "Acting Sheriff". It is going to be hard to fault him personnaly, when he wasn't around for the majority of the problem and he has not been there long enough to have rooted out the problem. As well, it would appear that he is not covering anything but calling it human error. His Offices, however, may have some answering to do. With that said, the Sheriff's Office is about as unionized a shop as you will find and answering for things is not the norm. It is clear that someone was supposed to be doing this job for the past 7-8 years and failed to so do. It will be interesting to see the explanation. It will be even more interesting to see if anyone is held accountable.

From a legal perspective, I have not seen the reasons of Justice Adams, however, I suspect that it is a fundamental justice issue. The state prepares the list and limitations to the list reduce the ability of the defendant to receive a fair trial by 12 impartial jurors.

UPDATE: I have been advised that John McDonald is in fact still just the Acting Sheriff. Any culpability on his part is now not just hard to show, it's out the window.

As well, it isn't so clear that someone was supposed to be doing this, though the responsibility is with the Sheriff's Office.

UPDATE II (JULY 26, 2007): Jury List Fixed