§52-1-5. Master list; method for compilation; additional freeholder list; lists to be available to public.

(a) The administrative director or his or her designee shall compile the master list consisting of persons appearing on not less than two of the following source lists:

(1) Persons who have filed a state personal income tax return for the preceding tax year;

(2) Persons who are registered to vote in the county; or

(3) Persons who hold a valid motor vehicle operator's or chauffeur's license as determined from the driver’s license lists provided by the Division of Motor Vehicles.

(b) The master list shall be compiled by combining all the names from each source used and eliminating all duplicates as follows:

(1) One source list shall be designated a primary source;

(2) Names selected from the second source shall be compared with the entire list of names on the primary source;

(3) Duplicate names shall be removed from the second source and the remaining names shall be combined with the names selected from the primary source to form the master list; and

(4) If more than two source lists are used, this process shall be repeated, using the previously combined list for comparison with the third source list, and so on.

(c) The administrative director or his or her designee shall provide each clerk with his or her county list from which prospective jurors are to be chosen, and the clerk shall maintain the county list.

(d) The master list shall be used for a period of two years or any other period as designated by the Supreme Court of Appeals or its designee.

(e) In October of each odd-numbered year, or at other times, the administrative director or his or her designee shall remove from the jury wheel the names of all persons who have, within the preceding two years, been summoned to serve as petit jurors, grand jurors, or magistrate court jurors, and who have actually attended sessions of the magistrate or circuit court and been reimbursed for their expenses as jurors pursuant to the provisions of §52-1-17 or §52-2-13 of this code, or any applicable rules of the Supreme Court of Appeals promulgated pursuant to §50-5-8 of this code.

(f) In addition to the master list required to be compiled under the provisions of this section, the clerk shall compile a list of persons who pay real property taxes to compile and maintain a list of freeholders to be used as jurors in eminent domain cases.

(g) The names from the county list provided to the clerks and freeholder list shall be open for public inspection in person during business hours.

(h) Any public officer of an agency, department, or political subdivision of this state having custody, possession or control of any of the source lists designated to be used in compiling the master list shall make the source list available to the administrative director or his or her designee for inspection, reproduction, and copying at all reasonable times: Provided, That the Tax Commissioner is exempt from this requirement.