A man completing a new online juror questionnaire for the DeKalb County Court in Georgia found a surprising and unpleasant suggestion when he was typing in his occupation: slave. According to local NBC affiliate 11Alive News, the court doesnt have an explanation yet for why the word is even on the questionnaire. The man filling out the form reportedly clicked the letter s intending to find the word sales, and instead ended up with slave as a suggestion. Court Administrator Cathy McCumber told the station the online form just went live a month ago, and the list of occupations originated from the countys previously offline catalogue, which had been used for 13 years prior. That list is 62 pages long, and McCumber couldnt say if the word slave was always listed as an occupation or if it somehow showed up after the new questionnaire went online. The company in charge of developing the courts software said the user is responsible for filling in the drop-down menus with whatever options they choose, which suggests the word was somehow added by a county employee McCumber said it will take time for an investigation to figure out how or when the word entered the forms database, but she added that it was removed within an hour of its discovery. Speculations online has ranged from disbelief and anger to the possibility that an employee entered the word as a joke. DeKalb residents, meanwhile, reacted with shock when they were shown the questionnaire. So theyre saying its a mistake? I dont think so, said Bridgette Mathis to 11Alive. Why is that even an option? Wow. Hopefully its just a glitch and hopefully it will be worked out, Anna Wyatt said. It doesnt make sense, but at the same time people make mistakes.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 10:12:07 +0000
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