Ga. juror form lists 'slave' as occupation

Rebecca Lindstrom | WXIA-TV, Atlanta

Show Caption Hide Caption Georgia state form lists 'slave' as occupation An online juror form from Dekalb County, Georgia lists 'slave' as an occupational option. Locals reacted with disbelief and confusion. The designer of the online software insists that all the survey info is inputted by the user.

A potential juror completing the form hit the letter %22s%22 for sales and he says he got %22slave%22 instead

Court administrator says the list of occupations is 62 pages long

The word slave was removed from the form within an hour after county officials learned about it

DECATUR, Ga. — A potential juror filling out a new DeKalb County Court online questionnaire discovered an unusual option among the occupation choices: slave.

A man completing the form hit the letter "s" for sales and he says he got "slave" instead.

Court Administrator Cathy McCumber said the questionnaire went online a month ago, but is based off an internal list that's been used for 13 years.

She says the list of occupations is 62 pages long, so she's not sure if the word slave has always been on it, or if it was added before the questionnaire went online to the public.

At the courthouse Monday, residents responded with disbelief when shown the questionnaire with the offending job title.

"That is not an occupation, slave is not an occupation," said Cheryl Glass.

"So they're saying it's a mistake? asked Bridgette Mathis. "I don't think so. Why is that even an option? Wow."

The company that designed the software says the drop-down menus in the survey are populated by the county.

"Hopefully it's just a glitch and hopefully it will be worked out," said Anna Wyatt. "It doesn't make sense, but at the same time people make mistakes."

McCumber said the word was removed from the online form within an hour after it was brought to county officials' attention. But figuring out how it got there, and when will take much longer.

Until a month ago, jurors had to fill out the questionnaire by hand and mail it in to the courthouse. The online form is supposed to be easier and more efficient.