NCJ Number
140674
Date Published
1993
Length
257 pages
Annotation
Using both theoretical and empirical research, this volume examines the relationships between race and juries and the legal, socioeconomic, and geopolitical factors that lead to racially unbalanced juries.
Abstract
The book focuses on macro-level problems of racial disenfranchisement and judicial inequality and provides both theoretical and methodological frameworks to analyze the structural causes of this disenfranchisement and to eliminate the sources of such nonegalitarian social structures. Four introductory chapters examine the institutional and structural mechanisms that have maintained the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities on juries. These factors include gerrymandered judicial districts, the use of voter lists to identify prospective jurors, and judicial discrimination. The analysis also considers specific cases illustrating the relationship between jurors' racial backgrounds and their verdicts; the use of structural and macro approaches to evaluate racial inequality in the jury system and in jury selection; and U.S. Supreme Court reviews dealing with the underrepresentation of blacks, Hispanics, women, and the poor on juries between 1880 and 1980. Economic excuses used in voluntary exclusion from jury service are also examined, with emphasis on the extent to which organizational resources and company supports influence racial and ethnic representation. Scientific jury selection in voir dire, the optimal statistical design for obtaining a racially representative jury, and the voir dire jury selection by the defense in the McMartin child molestation case are also discussed. In the McMartin case, the authors were jury consultants and helped the defense attorneys select the most impartial jurors. Tables, notes, index, and 274 references