A. Whenever a calendar has been made up for the trial of cases by jury, the judge shall request, in writing, the presiding judge of the district court for this judicial district to cause the names of a stated number of jurors, deemed sufficient to dispose of the cases on the calendar, to be drawn from the jury wheel in accordance with the governing statutes of the state, and to be certified by the clerk of the district court to the judge of the municipal court. The request shall be made in time for the list to be certified and the jurors to be summoned legally before the trial of the calendar begins. If it is anticipated that the completion of the calendar will require more than two (2) weeks, the request for jurors shall specify the number required for each two (2) week period, as provided by law for the drawing of jurors for the district court. Additional drawing of other names also may be requested by the judge, when necessary, in accordance with the law for such additional drawings in the district court. If, in the future, provisions of the law respecting the drawing of jury lists for the district court are changed, the judge shall take such steps, in requesting jury lists for the court, as are necessary to comply with the state law.
B. Upon receipt of the jury list, the clerk of the court shall cause a summons substantially in the following form to be issued and served upon each person on the list: (Prior code § 12-39)
STATE OF OKLAHOMA )
) SS:
COUNTY OF STEPHENS )
TO , GREETING: you hereby are summoned to appear in the Municipal Court for the City of Duncan, Oklahoma, to be held at on the day of 20 , at the hour of o'clock .M., to serve as a juror in said court, and to continue in such service until discharged by the court.
Hereof fail not, under penalty of law.
Issued under the authority of said court, this day of , 20 .
Clerk of the Municipal Court
of the City of Duncan, Oklahoma
(Seal)
(Prior code § 12-39; amd. 2015 Code)
C. Service shall be made, as the judge may prescribe by rule or direct by order, either in person upon the juror by the chief of police or by any member of the police force of this city, or by the clerk of the court, through certified mail, directed to the juror at his address as given in the jury list with request for a personally signed return receipt. In any proceeding wherein service of summons by mail is in issue, evidence of the due mailing of the summons by the clerk or a member of his staff and the presentation of an official postal return receipt purportedly signed by the addressee shall be prima facie evidence that the summons was duly received by the addressee and therefore, that he was properly served therewith.
D. A jury in the court shall consist of six (6) jurors, good and lawful men or women, citizens of the county of Stephens, possessing the qualifications of jurors in district court.
E. After the jurors are sworn, they must sit together and hear the proofs and oral arguments of the parties, which must be delivered in public and in the presence of the defendant.
F. A verdict of the jury may be rendered by the vote of five (5) jurors.
G. In all actions tried before a jury, the judge shall determine all questions of law, including questions as to the introduction of evidence, arising during the trial. He also shall instruct the jury as to the law.
H. The verdict of the jury, in all cases, must be general. When the jury has arrived at its verdict, it must deliver the verdict publicly to the court. The judge must enter the verdict in the docket or cause it to be so entered.
I. The jury must not be discharged after the cause is submitted to it until a verdict is rendered, unless the judge, for good cause, discharges it sooner, in which event the court may proceed again to trial, and so on, until a verdict is rendered. (Prior code § 12-39)