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In two of the biggest cases now occurring in the country–the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial, in Georgia; and the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial in Wisconsin–both juries are virtually all-white despite race being a central component in both cases.
The following Equal Justice Initiative organization report illustrates this historic bias that is often at work during jury selection and the tactics that are used to exclude Black Americans from juries.
In the Ahmaud Arbery trial, Judge Timothy Walmsley, at the end of the jury selection process, stated the following: “This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination.” But that virtually all-white jury will still be deciding the fate of the three white killers of Arbery.
Today, Black people and other people of color are excluded from participating in our jury system at every step of the jury selection process:
- when the court system creates lists of potential jurors,
- when potential jurors are notified to come to court,
- when judges decide which potential jurors are qualified to serve, and
- when prosecutors use peremptory strikes to remove potential jurors.
EJI’s new report explains how racial bias continues to infect our legal system.
Overview
The Race and the Jury report explains that illegal racial discrimination in jury selection inflicts harm on excluded jurors, produces wrongful convictions and excessive sentences, and compromises the integrity of the legal system as a whole.
The report documents the country’s long history of tolerating racial bias in jury selection and a continuing indifference to correcting widespread underrepresentation of people of color on juries.
Race-based discrimination in jury selection was outlawed nearly 150 years ago. But as we detailed in our 2010 report on illegal racial discrimination in jury selection, the problem is a continuing legacy of our history of racial injustice.
The problem persists because those who perpetrate or tolerate racial bias—including trial and appellate courts, defense lawyers, lawmakers, and prosecutors—act with impunity. Courts that fail to create jury lists that fairly represent their communities face no repercussions. Prosecutors who unlawfully strike Black people from juries don’t get fined, sanctioned, or held accountable.
Several states, including California, Washington, Connecticut, and New Jersey, have recognized the problem and implemented reforms or initiated studies.
But other states have hesitated to address the problem.
Most states have done nothing.
