As calls to reform the American criminal justice system go unanswered at the federal level, some states are looking to use their own power to make changes to one key component: juries.
Several high-profile cases relied on mostly-white juries, including in the trials of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin and the three men who killed Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. The judge in the latter case admitted that “intentional discrimination” had been used to strike Black jurors from being seated.
Research shows that despite nearly 40 years after the Supreme Court effectively eliminated jury discrimination on the basis of race, it persists. It mostly happens during the pre-trial peremptory challenge where attorneys on both sides can strike a juror without citing a specific reason.
The Post‘s report cited a study that found the more racially diverse a jury is, the more time they spend deliberating. These juries also make fewer mistakes and can result in fairer trials.
And in the time since that decision, the issue has been raised more than 40 times.
In 2017, Ausha Byng testified before the state of Washington’s Supreme Court on the rampant racial bias in jury selection. After listening for hours to legal experts on the issue, Byng told the state justices her experience being summoned to serve on a jury.
“Most people get the notices and they don’t want to do it,” Byng testified. “But me, I was excited,” she added, noting being a fan of Law & Order.
At the time, Byng was balancing college and a family, so when they day of her jury service came, she had to arrange childcare for her daughter. She also didn’t have a car, so she rode the bus to the courthouse and waited with the other potential jurors.
Byng was selected to hear a drug case against a young Black man. She recalled that the prosecutor asked most of the jurors the same questions, but called her out for one: if she trusted the police. She replied no, and was immediately dismissed.
The judge called the attorneys to speak in private and put all the jurors in a back room for more than 30 minutes while they talked.
“I was extremely embarrassed. And I felt really excluded because it was very obvious that I was the reason that we all needed to leave,” Byng told The Post. The judge eventually found Byng’s dismissal legal.
Washington still allows peremptory challenge, but a clause was added in 2018 after Byng testified that calls for a judge to consider if “an objective observer could view race or ethnicity as a factor in the peremptory challenge.”
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