§ 193.Different kinds of juries

Title 3. Persons Specially Invested With Powers of a Judicial Nature · Chapter 1. Trial Jury Selection and Management Act · Enacted 1988 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 28, 2026

In one sentenceSection 193 recognizes three kinds of juries in California: grand juries under the Penal Code, trial juries, and juries of inquest, giving the Trial Jury Selection and Management Act a map of the bodies it touches.

Full Text of § 193

Text sizeJump to: (a) (b) (c)

Juries are of three kinds:

(a) Grand juries established pursuant to Title 4 (commencing with Section 888) of Part 2 of the Penal Code.

(b) Trial juries.

Plain-English Summary

Section 193 sorts California juries into three categories. Grand juries are governed by their own Penal Code provisions. Trial juries are the ones that decide civil and criminal cases, and they are the main subject of this chapter. Juries of inquest are an older device, historically used to help a coroner or similar officer inquire into particular facts.

For anyone using this site, the trial jury is the one that matters day to day. Nearly every section from here forward — qualifications, exemptions, summonses, voir dire, challenges — is written for trial juries, even though the chapter’s title reaches all three categories.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the three kinds of juries under Section 193?

Grand juries, trial juries, and juries of inquest.

Which kind of jury does most of this chapter regulate?

The trial jury. The definitions, source-list rules, exemptions, and challenge procedures that follow are written for the trial jury that hears civil and criminal cases.

Are grand juries covered by this chapter?

Grand juries are established and governed under Title 4 of Part 2 of the Penal Code, not by the sections of this chapter.

What is a jury of inquest?

It is a body historically summoned before a sheriff, coroner, or similar officer to inquire into particular facts, a distinct and much less commonly used category from the trial jury.

Amendment History

Added Stats 1988 ch 1245 § 2.

Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature. Last verified July 28, 2026. · Official source

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