Race and Jury Selection

Paper Summary:

The paper considers the jury selection of an African American man charged with armed robbery. During the selection process a prospective juror is stricken by the prosecution in order to have a racially representative jury. The paper contains two essays, each with a compelling argument for or against the challenge, and both based upon the Supreme Court ruling in 1986, Batson v. Kentucky.

From the Paper:

"In the case in question for this essay, the defendant is an African American male being tried for armed robbery. As the voir dire process is being undertaken, the prosecution exercised a preemptory challenge to strike the sixth prospective juror from consideration. The sixth juror was, like the defendant, an African American, as were three of the five jurors already selected. When asked to defend this motion and action, the prosecutor stated that the juror should not consist of a racial makeup that is disproportionate from that of the nation as a whole. In this case, the jury would be 80% African American which is far different from the racial makeup of the United States. As logical as this argument sounds, the judge need only look at the 1986 Supreme Court ruling, Batson v. Kentucky, to see that this is illegal and cannot be allowed during the voir dire process."

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