60 Dead People Included On IL Jury Panel: Reports

WHITESIDE COUNTY, IL — An Illinois jury panel of 200 possible jurors for an April trial included 60 people confirmed to be dead, according to reports.

The discovery in rural Whiteside County prompted attorney James Mertes to file a motion arguing the jury panel for the upcoming trial of his client, Michael Cover, did not fairly represent the community and should be discharged, Shaw Local reported.

In addition to the dozens of dead people on the panel — one of whom died 35 years ago — the median age was 72, compared to the county’s actual median of 43, according to Shaw Local.

The state’s list of prospective jurors included 48,000 county residents, but as of 2020, the county’s adult population was far less, at roughly 43,000, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Mertes is arguing that the source or sources used to compile the 200-person panel “results in flawed differential growth of the older subgroup due to non-purging of the deceased and thereby necessarily results in systematic age-based exclusion of a younger population,” according to Shaw Local.

The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, which provided the list, according to Shaw Local, declined to comment to the Tribune due to the pending case, the newspaper reported.