“Disparity in the jury selection process” means difference in the jury selection process. The author of The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America means with this expression that when selecting juries to participate in court, the prosecutor may determine that an individual can not participate as a jury in court just by using a simple excuse. For example, the prosecutor may decide that an African American women is not right to be one of the jurors in court just because of her clothing. Lyon (2010), “In one case I tried, the prosecution excused a black woman who was married, a homeowner, had two children and taught elementary school. They kept a white woman who was married, a homeowner, had three children and taught elementary school. His “race-neutral” explanation? The black woman wore her dress too tight. No kidding. And the judge accepted that explanation” (para. 11).
“The jury is the heart of the criminal justice system.” According to “Jury Selection In Criminal Cases” (2014), ” The right to trial by jury in criminal cases is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the laws of every state. Lawyers and judges select juries by a process known as “voir dire,” which is Latin for “to speak the truth.” In voir dire, the judge and attorneys for both sides ask potential jurors questions to determine if they are competent and suitable to serve in the case. Errors during jury selection are common grounds for appeal in criminal cases. The trial judge begins voir dire by asking the prospective jurors questions to ensure that are they are legally qualified to serve on a jury and that jury service would not them cause undue hardship.” (para. 1). The following would be examples of some things that would excuse someone from attending jury service:
· Students who has a critical exam to do
· Upcoming surgery scheduled
· Sole caretaker
The lawyers for each side question the potential jurors about their biases and backgrounds, as well as any pre-existing knowledge they might have about the case. The following are some of the things lawyers are not supposed to do:
· Not ask personal questions
· Ask how they would decide the case in advance
Many states obtain the names of potential jurors from lists of registered voters, automobile registrations, or property tax rolls. The problem with this seemingly objective method is that in some jurisdictions racial minorities are less likely than whites to register to vote or to own automobiles or taxable property. As a result, racial minorities are less likely than whites to receive a jury summons. There are many things that has helped citizens of all states to participate in being a juror. Jury service:
· Duty to all who qualifies
· Selected at random
· Equal opportunity
· Race, color, religion, sex, national origin, economic status, or occupation should not be taken into consideration
· Handicapped shall also serve except when such service is not feasible
Jury nullification is when a juror believes hat the evidence presented at trial establishes the defendant’s guilt but nonetheless votes to acquit. Two examples of jury nullification are:
1. In the first instance, a juror might refuse to convict a defendant tried in federal court for possession of more than 50 grams of crack cocaine, based on her belief that the draconian penalties mandated by the law are unfair.
2. In the second instance, a juror might vote to acquit a father charged with child endangerment after his 2-year-old daughter, who was not restrained in a child safety seat, was thrown from the car and killed when he lost control of his car on an icy road. In this case, the juror does not believe that the law itself is unfair, but, rather, that the defendant has suffered enough and that nothing will be gained by additional punishment.
Peremptory challenges basically means challenges without cause, without explanation, and without judicial scrutiny. “Kennedy, in fact, characterized the peremptory challenge as “a creature of unbridled discretion that, in the hands of white prosecutors and white defendants, has often been used to sustain racial subordination in the courthouse.” (University of Phoenix, 2012, para. 54). The validity of their concerns is illustrated by a 1995 Supreme Court case, Purkett v. Elem. Jimmy Elem, an African American on trial for robbery in Missouri, objected to the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to strike two African American men from the jury panel. The prosecutor provided the following racially neutral explanation for these strikes:
· I struck [juror] number twenty-two because of his long hair. He had long curly hair. He had the longest hair of anybody on the panel by far. He appeared to me to not be a good juror for that fact, the fact that he had long hair hanging down shoulder length, curly, unkempt hair. Also, he had a mustache and a goatee type beard. And juror number twenty-four also has a mustache and goatee type beard. Those are the only two people on the jury … with the mustache and goatee type beard…. And I don’t like the way they looked, with the way the hair is cut, both of them. And the mustaches and the beards look suspicious to me.
In conclusion, the jury selection process has its laws that help protect people from discrimination by using the jury service, but once the person is in, prosecutors and lawyers have what is called a peremptory challenge. No matter what, one way or another discrimination and equal right are not practiced when selecting a juror in court.
Reference:
Lyon, A. D. (2010). Racism common in jury selection. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/23/lyon.racial.jury.selection/
Jury Selection in Criminal Cases. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/jury-selection-criminal-cases.html
University of Phoenix. (2012). The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, CJS/221 website.
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I have only been selected to serve as a juror once. It was not a criminal trial. It was a civil case. I have been called for jury duty more than once. The method in which states get the names of potential jurors could be deemed “biased” or “not fair and objective” in that many people do not register to vote, and lots of people don't own a car or a house. Don't know any practical way to fix that, other than maybe collecting names and contact data from IRS tax returns since most people, including “smart people” like Donald Trump, at least file an income tax return, even if they don't pay taxes. :) We could also use social security records database. It's a thought.