Office of Jury Commissioner Regulations  Office of Jury Commissioner Regulation 8: Specifications of random shuffle method

This regulation sets forth the random shuffle method used by the Office of Jury Commissioner in the implementation of Chapter 234A of the Massachusetts General Laws, and, in particular, under section sixteen of the said chapter.

The Office of Jury Commissioner employs the Marsaglia random number generator during the annual processing of each city and town numbered resident list in preparation for prospective juror selection and master juror list creation. The random number generator algorithm generates a sequence of random numbers, and each juror on each prospective juror list for each judicial district is assigned a unique number from that sequence. Each numbered resident list for each judicial district is then randomly shuffled. The random shuffle method is sorting by random number. Prospective jurors are then selected from each city and town in sequence.