CRM/LAW C165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Jury Selection
• jury selection
o excused jurors
o for cause challenges
▪ knowledge of parties, crime
▪ bias
o peremptory challenges
• peremptory challenges
o set number of challenges given to each side; party need not give any reason for
exercising them
• Batson v. Kentucky
o peremptory challenges cannot be exercised in a discriminatory manner; jurors
can’t be excused solely on account of their race
• subsequent cases
o J.E.B. v. Alabama
▪ Batson applies to gender as well as race
o Georgia v. McCollum
▪ ban on race discrimination applies to defense as well as prosecution
• Miller-El, 2003
o 8-1 decision, with Justice Thomas dissenting
o in 1986 trial, Dallas County DA’s used peremptories against 10 of 11 African-
American prospective jurors (91%).
o by contrast, prosecutors struck only 13% of non-Black potential jurors
o DA questioned African-Americans differently from others, giving detailed
description of lethal injection procedure
o DA requested “jury shuffles” at least twice when front part of panel was
predominantly African-American
o a DA jury selection manual available to at least one of Miller-El’s prosecutors
instructed DA’s not to allow African-Americans or other racial minorities on jury
o issues before Supreme Court was whether Miller-El should’ve been granted a
“certificate of appealability” to allow him to even raise this claim – Supreme
Court said yes
o on remand, 5th circuit rejected Miller-El’s claim on the merits, finding legitimate
reasons for the prosecution’s strike of Black jurors
o Supreme Court granted certiorari again
• Miller-El v. Cockrell (2005)
o 6-3 decision (by Souter) holds
▪ 5th circuit disobeyed Court’s order to reconsider Miller-El’s claim
▪ Miller-El wins on the merits: pattern of exclusion, manual, and manner of
questioning violated Batson
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