Racial Exclusion in Juries

Abstract

This study examines the norms of jury selection, determines which norms are most important in qualifying individuals for jury service, and discusses how the interpretation and application of these norms influence the racial composition of juries as blacks progress from the jury list to the jury panel and to the jury box. The data come from a questionnaire survey of 1,551 legal personnel-district clerks, jury commissioners, state attorneys, defense attorneys, and judges-who are most directly associated with state petit trial juries in 325 counties of eight Southern states with large black populations. The results indicate that blacks are significantly underrepresented at several jury selection stages. Some of the reasons for this underrepresentation are related to unsupervised and unauthorized discretionary jury selection procedures and the systematic striking of blacks.

The Process is the Punishment: Juror Demographics and Case Administration in State Courts

“…However, there is some reason to believe that exclusion at stage of compilation of juror lists was significant relative to discrimination at later stages in reducing the representation of nonwhites on juries relative to their population share. A 1972 survey of jury commissioners, district clerks, state attorneys, defense attorneys and judges in 325 counties in the South with large African American populations found that self-reported race shares at different stages (jury list, jury box, jury) indicate that a large fraction of the disparity between population shares and jury service race shares materialized at the stage of the compilation of the jury list (Benokraitis, 1982). 9…”

Do Jurors Discriminate? Evidence from Changes in State Juror Selection Procedures

“…However, there is some reason to believe that exclusion at stage of compilation of juror lists was significant relative to discrimination at later stages in reducing the representation of nonwhites on juries relative to their population share. A 1972 survey of jury commissioners, district clerks, state attorneys, defense attorneys and judges in 325 counties in the South with large African American populations found that self-reported race shares at different stages (jury list, jury box, jury) indicate that a large fraction of the disparity between population shares and jury service race shares materialized at the stage of the compilation of the jury list (Benokraitis, 1982). 5…”

“…Benokraitis (1982) found that in such states, jury commissioners and district clerks reported using personal knowledge to select potential jurors, or consulting acquaintances to eliminate a significant number of jurors from the lists based on reports of "character" and "intelligence".…”

Roles of neighborhood race and status in the middle stages of juror selection

“…Some have claimed that all stages of jury selection processes, including these middle stages, introduce racial biases (Alker, Hosticka, & Mitchell, 1976;Benokraitis, 1982;Fukurai et al, 1991aFukurai et al, , 1991b. The empirical work, however, has not consistently supported that point.…”