The Right to Jury Duty Before 1972, those who owned their own home and exceeded a taxable value were eligible for jury service. The Morris Committee, in 1965, estimated that 78% of names on the electoral roll were ineligible for jury service, and that 95% of women were also ineligible, either because they lived in rented accommodation, or because they were wives. The committee recommended that the right to perform jury service should correspond. with the right to vote. This reform was introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 1972 and is also found in the Juries Act 1974. To be eligible for jury service you must be between the ages of 18 and 70, you must be registered on the electoral roll and have lived in the United Kingdom. Channel Islands or Isle of Man for at least five years from the age of thirteen. Some people will be automatically disqualified from jury service, including: people who have been sentenced to prison or a young offenders institute, someone who has received a community rehabilitation order. There are also people who are not eligible for jury service, ineligible when people cannot do jury service for certain reasons for example; people with mental illnesses, priests, monks and nuns and people on bail. MPs, the military, doctors and nurses, as well as people over 65 can be exempt as a right. This may be because they have duties that are considered more important to the public, i.e. instead of being a juror, a doctor could save someone's life. Discretionary excuse is a process by which the judge will excuse people for certain reasons, which may be that the juror will be absent at the time of trial, that they will have child custody issues, and that they will have problems with the accused. The judge usually defers the juror rather than fully excusing them until they can continue serving jury duty. There is also a term called liberation, this is where there is doubt.