Request By:
Mr. Gary O. Lawson
Clark County Sheriff
P.O. Box 352
Winchester, Kentucky 40391
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The question you raise for our opinion is as follows:
"Who is responsible for the service of summoning jurors? "
The sheriff is responsible for executing and returning all notices and process which come to him. KRS 70.070. The summoning of jurors and grand jurors is covered in KRS 29A.070 and 29A.210. KRS 29A.070(1) provides in part that the chief circuit judge shall cause to be mailed or delivered with the summons to each juror a juror qualification form etc. Neither of the two statutes requires the court to place the summonses in the hands of the sheriff for actual delivery. KRS 29A.070 clearly suggests that the court can require the court clerk to mail the summonses.
KRS 64.090 provides in part that for services in summoning grand and petit jurors and performing his duties under KRS Chapter 29A, the sheriff shall be allowed, for each person so summoned, and paid out of the state treasury for constructive service the sum of $1.50 and for personal service the sum of $3.00.
It is our opinion that the courts are not mandated to place the summoning of jurors in the hands of the sheriff. They may do so, if they desire. The courts may require the court clerk to mail the summonses. See KRS 29A.070(1), 30A.140, and 24A.140.
Thus the explicit provisions of KRS 70.070 points up the position of the sheriff in the summoning of jurors. It simply is that he serves summonses if they are placed in his hands by orders of the court. The court has held that it has the duty to construe statutes literally if it is reasonably possible to do so. Here it is reasonably possible to do so.