§ 21.009.Jury Deliberations; Verdict

The section that makes deaf jury service workable, and it answers the objection directly.

The interpreter appointed for a juror may be present and assist the juror during the jury deliberation. And the presence of the interpreter during jury deliberations does not affect the validity of a verdict.

The second sentence is the operative one. Texas law otherwise treats the presence of a thirteenth person in the jury room as a serious irregularity, and without this provision every verdict in a case with a deaf juror would invite a challenge on that ground alone.

The Legislature settled it by statute rather than leaving it to be litigated case by case, which is the only way the entitlement could function — an accommodation that puts every verdict at risk is not one a court would readily grant.

"Assist" is bounded by the oath. The interpreter's juror oath forbids participating in the deliberations, communicating with jurors other than by literal translation, and disclosing the deliberations afterwards. Assistance means interpreting, and this section and that oath must be read together.

The 1987 amendments that created the juror entitlement added this section at the same time — the right and the mechanism arrived together.