By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

COUNTY — Pickens County clerk of court Pat Welborn is concerned about a situation that not only costs local taxpayers money, but delays the course of justice.

Not enough people are showing up for jury duty, he said.

“Back in August, we had a situation where we didn’t have enough jurors so that we could pick two juries,” Welborn said.

It was a frustrating situation, he said.

“It cost the taxpayers money, and it cost the people involved in the trial,” Welborn said. “We had a lot of people there ready to go to work.”

One of the judges ordered Welborn and his staff to issue bench warrants for those who had been called for jury duty and hadn’t shown up.

With the assistance of the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, the no-shows were found and notified without having to be served with the warrants, he said.

Welborn doesn’t want to have to serve residents with warrants.

“I think it would just be terrible if we had to have our good, law-abiding citizens arrested for not showing up for jury duty,” Welborn said. “That would be terrible.”

But he also needs residents to understand the importance of being called and serving on a jury.

“We need people to come and participate,” Welborn said.

As clerk of court, he’s seen the same scenario play out time after time with those called for jury

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