Jury selection: acknowledgment and agreement.

Assembly Member Pacheco's jury selection reform measure modifies the formal acknowledgments that prospective and seated jurors must provide during the trial process in California courts. The legislation revises two key statements that frame jurors' legal obligations - one administered before voir dire questioning begins and another delivered after the final jury is empaneled.

Under the amended provisions, potential jurors must explicitly acknowledge their duty to answer all qualification questions "accurately and truthfully" during the selection process, with the added specification that false statements may result in criminal prosecution for perjury. Once selected, jurors must formally agree to consider the case carefully and reach a verdict based solely on the evidence presented and the court's legal instructions. Both acknowledgments require verbal confirmation through the statement "I do."

The measure maintains the existing framework of the Trial Jury Selection and Management Act, which requires random selection of jurors from sources representing a cross-section of the court's jurisdiction. It preserves the judge's role in examining prospective jurors and counsel's right to question candidates to inform their use of peremptory and for-cause challenges.