By NYCLU
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
This weekend, Governor Hochul vetoed the Jury of Our Peers Act (S.206B-Cleare/A.1432C-Aubry), a bill that would have ended New York’s lifetime ban on jury service for people with felony convictions. The veto guarantees racial inequities remain in New York’s jury system and keeps New York in the minority of states that permanently take away this basic civic right.
Following Governor Hochul’s veto, civil rights and public defender organizations issue the following statements:
“Governor Hochul chose to reject what would have been an enormous stride towards racial equity, justice, and fairness within our state’s democratic system,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Every day, New York’s jury ban shuts hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers out of civic engagement, denying people the ability to fully participate in our state’s democratic process, disproportionately Black New Yorkers. By rejecting this pro-democracy bill and maintaining a lifetime ban on jury service for people with a past felony conviction who have already paid their debt to society, Hochul has stalled the process of creating a fairer legal system and kept us lagging behind most states. Everyone deserves to be judged by a jury of our peers, and we’ll keep fighting to make that a reality here in New York.”
“We are greatly disappointed that the Governor has vetoed the “Jury of our Peers Act” which would have finally ended the lifetime ban on jury service for New Yorkers with felony convictions,” said Phil Desgranges, Attorney-in-Charge of Criminal Law Reform at The Legal Aid Society. “This long overdue legislation would have brought New York in line with the majority of states that recognize that restoration of civic duties like jury service is an essential part of successful reentry after prison. More diverse jury pools — which are subject to individualized screening before selection as a juror — help to lessen the stark racial disparities that have eroded public confidence in the fairness and equity of our legal system. By vetoing this commonsense legislation, the Governor has prevented New York from correcting an exclusion that unfairly stigmatizes the communities we serve, the majority of whom are people of color. We thank State Senator Cordell Cleare and Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry for sponsoring the Jury of Our Peers Act and the leadership in both houses for passing the bill. We will continue to fight for an end to this tool of systemic racism and a new era where a person accused of a crime can finally be judged by a jury of their peers.”
“Since this nation’s founding, the rights enshrined in our Constitution have not been applied equally to all people. Nearly 250 years later, the Governor’s veto of “Jury of Our Peers,” a bill that would restore jury eligibility to New Yorkers with a felony conviction, reveals with startling clarity just how far we are away from achieving this essential tenet of American democracy,” said Megan French-Marcelin, Senior Director of New York State Policy at the Legal Action Center. “For decades, Black and Latine New Yorkers have been systematically denied the right to serve on juries even as they are disproportionately subject to racist policing and prosecution. This bill, championed by Senator Cordelle Cleare and Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, issued a common sense corrective providing New York an opportunity to expand fairness in a two-tiered system of justice. We applaud our sponsors for their hard work, and remain committed to passing legislation that provides jury eligibility to everyone, irrespective of their conviction history.”
“With her veto, Governor Hochul disregarded the will of the legislature in order to preserve a Jim Crow-era law,” said Stan Germán, Executive Director of New York County Defender Services. “In Manhattan, where we practice, the permanent prohibition on jury service for people with felony convictions is highly visible. Manhattan’s communities of color have been over policed for decades. They have suffered from socio-economic disenfranchisement and overcrowded and underfunded schools. As a result, 40% of Black men in Manhattan have a felony conviction and are prohibited from the opportunity to serve on a jury because of a prior conviction. It is no surprise, then, that our Black and brown clients are regularly forced to try their case in front of a jury that does not reflect the diversity of their life experience or the community that they were raised in. New York County Defender Services will continue to fight alongside the bill’s champions for full automatic restoration of the right to be considered for jury service for all people.”
“A just and fair jury, a jury that is a true reflection of a community’s conscience, values and beliefs, requires us to uplift those that have been directly impacted not exclude them,” said Porsha-Shaf’on Venable, MSW/JD, at The Bronx Defenders. “Recognizing that community members don’t lose their voice, value or being a peer, because they have a criminal conviction is vital to a fair, just and diverse jury. Signing this Bill would have been a step in the direction of realizing the words of the Magna Carta and the Constitution ‘no free man could be punished without ‘the lawful judgment of his peers.’”
