§ 25-1669.Grand jury; how drawn; alternate jurors.

Section 25-1669 picks up where the qualifying process in section 25-1668 leaves off. Once potential jurors have been investigated and found qualified, the jury commissioner draws forty names by chance — or another number the judge or judges direct — and prepares a list showing each person’s residence and occupation. The commissioner then notifies or summons those chosen as the judge or judges direct.

Selecting the actual grand jury is not left to the commissioner alone. A three-member board — the jury commissioner, the presiding judge of the district court, and one other person the presiding judge designates, with the presiding judge acting as chairperson — reviews the list of forty and chooses sixteen people to serve as grand jurors and three more to serve as alternates.

Alternates are not bystanders. They sit alongside the regular grand jurors through the investigative process, question witnesses, review evidence, and take part in every discussion that happens before the presentation of evidence closes. Once the grand jury decides it has gathered enough evidence, the alternates step back — they no longer take part in further discussions, deliberations, or votes, unless a regular grand juror has to be excused for illness or another sufficient reason, in which case alternates fill vacancies in the order they were chosen.