Whenever in the opinion of the court the trial of a civil case before a jury is likely to be a protracted one, the court may, immediately after the jury is impaneled and sworn, direct the calling of one or two (2) additional jurors, to be known as alternate jurors. Alternate jurors shall be drawn from the same source, and in the same manner, and have the same qualifications, as regular jurors, and be subject to examination and challenge as such jurors, except that each party shall be allowed one peremptory challenge for each alternate juror. The alternate jurors shall take the proper oath or affirmation and shall be seated near the regular jurors with equal facilities for seeing and hearing the proceedings in the cause and shall attend at all times upon the trial of the cause in company with the regular jurors. They shall obey all orders and admonitions of the court, and if the regular jurors are ordered to be kept in the custody of an officer during the trial of the cause, the alternate jurors shall 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 is discharged, the court shall order the alternate juror, if there is but one, to take 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 the jury box. After an alternate juror is in the jury box he or she shall be subject to the same rules as a regular juror.
History of Section.
G.L. 1938, ch. 506, § 32½; P.L. 1940, ch. 936, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 9-10-13; P.L. 1972, ch. 169, § 5.