§ 9-10-13 - Alternate jurors. - Rhode Island Statutes

SECTION 9-10-13

   § 9-10-13  Alternate jurors. – Whenever in the opinion of the court the trial of a civil case before a jury islikely to be a protracted one, the court may, immediately after the jury isimpaneled and sworn, direct the calling of one or two (2) additional jurors, tobe known as alternate jurors. Alternate jurors shall be drawn from the samesource, and in the same manner, and have the same qualifications, as regularjurors, and be subject to examination and challenge as such jurors, except thateach party shall be allowed one peremptory challenge for each alternate juror.The alternate jurors shall take the proper oath or affirmation and shall beseated near the regular jurors with equal facilities for seeing and hearing theproceedings in the cause and shall attend at all times upon the trial of thecause in company with the regular jurors. They shall obey all orders andadmonitions of the court, and if the regular jurors are ordered to be kept inthe custody of an officer during the trial of the cause, the alternate jurorsshall also be kept with the other jurors and, except as hereinafter provided,shall be discharged upon the final submission of the cause to the jury. If,before the final submission of the cause, a regular juror dies or isdischarged, the court shall order the alternate juror, if there is but one, totake his or her place in the jury box. If there are two (2) alternate jurors,the court shall select one by lot, who shall then take his or her place in thejury box. After an alternate juror is in the jury box he or she shall besubject to the same rules as a regular juror.