'A Jury of One's Peers' Now Rings Truer in New Jersey

New Jersey's outgoing governor just used one of his final moves in office to put roughly 350,000 residents back in the jury pool. Speaking at New Hope Baptist Church in East Orange on Sunday, Democrat Phil Murphy signed an executive order restoring jury eligibility to people with past criminal convictions who have completed their sentences, Bolts reports.

New Jersey had been among the strictest states in the country, imposing a lifetime jury ban on anyone convicted of an "indictable offense," a broad category that includes both felonies and lower-level crimes—making the state one of just five with such sweeping exclusions. Advocates say the old rules skewed who ended up in jury boxes, shutting out about a quarter of Black adults in the state and undercutting the idea of a "jury of one's peers."

The order applies only to people convicted on or before Jan. 10, meaning anyone sentenced after that date is still shut out unless lawmakers pass a permanent fix—something they've debated since 2018. Bolts, which interviewed advocates who pushed for the change, digs into the racial impact and research on diverse juries; read the full piece here.