NCJ Number
105181
Journal
Michigan Law Review Volume: 83 Issue: 7 Dated: (June 1985) Pages: 1611-1708
Date Published
1985
Length
98 pages
Annotation
This article examines cross-disciplinary evidence that racial prejudice influences jury deliberations, considers the impact of legal protections in controlling the effects of racial prejudice, and suggests an equal protection-based remedy for persisting discrimination against minority race defendants.
Abstract
A review of case studies, court and correctional statistics, and laboratory and field research suggests that prejudice against minority groups, particularly blacks, influences perceived guilt, jury deliberations, trial outcomes, and sentencing. A consideration of existing techniques for eliminating the effects of racial bias on criminal trials indicates that the assurance of a representative jury, screening out of biased jurors, or control of the content of jury deliberations are all inappropriate tools for neutralizing the effects of the amounts and kinds of bias documented by empirical evidence. A possible way to eliminate the effects of racial bias would be to afford minority defendants (blacks, Asians, Hispanics) a right to a racially similar jury. It is recommended that this right not be extended to individual white ethnic groups that at least three racially similar jurors be guaranteed, and that the right would belong to the defendant alone. 505 footnotes.