Dred Scott Jury

The intersection of racial dynamics with the criminal justice system is one of longstanding duration. In earlier times, courtrooms in many jurisdictions were comprised of all white decision-makers. Today, there is more diversity of leadership in the court system, but race still plays a critical role in many

Despite the efforts of lawyers and judges to eliminate racial discrimination in the courts, does racial bias play a part in today’s jury selection? Positive steps have been taken in past court cases to ensure fair and unbiased juries. Unfortunately, a popular strategy among lawyers is to incorporate racial bias without directing attention to their actions. They are taught to look for the unseen and to notice the unnoticed. The Supreme Court in its precedent setting decision on the case of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), is the first step to limiting racial discrimination in the court room. The process of selecting jurors begins with prospective jurors being brought into the courtroom, then

Jury Nullification is the process that allows members of the juror to acquit a defendant for crimes they do not feel is grounds for punishment. Although, many jurors may not know this is an option to many cases, it is still an option. If citizens use this option in many of the courtroom proceedings, there will be fewer people who are serving time in prison. On the other hand, this does interfere with the decision- making process. This paper will explain whether ethnicity influences courtroom proceedings and judicial practices. It will summarize the arguments for and against ethnicity-based jury nullification. Including contemporary examples of

An instance of this can be the unfair treatment the Scottsboro boys received at multiple trials of theirs. The boys were evidently denied a fair trial. The jury was totally biased as most of them were white males. Which made it very difficult for the boys to even come close to winning the trial . It was even said that the rolls of the jurors were “tampered with and blacks had been unfairly excluded from serving on juries in the Alabama counties where the trials occurred”(Source 1). Which also made it impossible to clear the names of the boys who had clearly done nothing

There is so many reasons why which I explained throughout the whole paper. I just think that the person is not being treated the way they should be if that was to happen under those grounds. Also it’s kind of like you are judging he jury because you think that they might feel or might not feel a certain way about the case. Your race and gender should have nothing to do with your decision when you are sitting on a jury stand ready to determine how so one will spend the rest of their life. I would never want to be in that situation and I wouldn’t want anyone else to be. I do not think I would feel comfortable being excluded from a jury because of my race. No matter what my race is I should get an opportunity to sit on a jury just like others. Also my gender should not matter because whether the defendant is a male or female, wrong is wrong and there is no sympathizing with someone who is clearly wrong. I am happy that this topic is being talked about because to me it is a big issue. I feel like certain people think that there’s no problem with excluding jurors but in all reality it is. Like I’ve mentioned before, according to sixth amendment you have the right to an impartial trial and when you are excluding jurors for certain reasons that is affecting your rights. Also that leads into the 14th amendment which is the

And it also appears that the justice system also doesn’t bother to address this problem, because when it comes to jurors it appears that you rarely see a black person in a juror but yet you see more Caucasian people than blacks in the jurors when it comes to the juror system. This problem doesn’t make sense but again the justice system is bias against the black

In California, people with felony convictions cannot serve on a jury, where many important policies and trials are decided (Hersh). For example, the decision to not indict Darren Wilson was made by a jury made up of six white men, three white women, two black women, and one black man (Bell). Nine votes were needed to indict. Since there is a racial implication to people getting felonies, there is an associated relation to the racial makeup of juries (Hersh). The racial imbalance of juries is a longstanding American tradition, and for many, an imbalanced jury can be literally lifechanging. In 1961, Wilbert Rideau, who is black, was a 19-year-old living in Louisiana, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Having grown up in an abusive household with little in the way of money, he felt desperate, and decided to try and rob a bank to escape his situation. In a confused and clumsy attempt, he ended up opening fire with a gun he purchased earlier in the day, killing one of the female tellers (Labranche). He then went on to be tried in front of an all-white jury, in a courtroom of angry, drunk white people; “I was the only black in sight, a fly in a bowl of milk,” he said in his memoir In the Place of Justice. The all-white jury charged him with first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death. Rideau was sentenced in a time of shifting American attitudes regarding

In today’s modern and culturally changing American society, the jury plays a crucial role in our democracy. Jury service allows defendants to exercise their right to a fair and impartial trial. However, in recent years there have been incidents where jurors have been excluded on the grounds of race, gender, religion and sexual orientation. These exclusions have a great impact on the fairness of a trial.

The results yielded contradicting evidence to previous research. In previous research, eyewitness testimony credible or not has shown to influence a juror’s decision (Pozzulo & Dempsey, 2009; Whitley, 2001). In this case, we only compared discredited and credible witness. From each other, they did not show a difference on juror’s decision. In addition, black defendants are convicted more and receiver harsher punishments than white defendants (Demuth & Steffensmeier, 2004). On the other hand, a review by Sommers’s (2007) indicated the degree to which race plays a role still needs to be studied more. Although, his conclusion was that race does play some type of role in a juror’s decision. The current study supports Sommers’s review in that more research does need be conducted because of the contradicting

With too many citizens being sentenced to undeserved criminal punishments simply due to their uncontrollable characteristics such as sex and race where parts of peoples lives are permanently taken away never to be made up for. With this, a change in the current court system must be done. Whenever a trial provides information other than the necessary facts for a a jury to take in, it takes away from the right to an impartial trial. With an unbiased jury a fair trial is possible; however, with a majority of Americans holding some form of preconceived notion about certain characteristics, it is impossible for an individual to receive an impartial jury.

Throughout American history, racial bias has always affected the assessment of serious crime cases. In my opinion, I found jury selected only one race to be imbalance because there is still racial bias among people and it may never change that fact. The only way to eliminate the unfair judgment of imbalance, we should abandon the peremptory challenges is being used in favor of the White. Black people not only have been illegally excluded but also denigrated and insulted with reasons intended to conceal racial bias.

The uncertain discrimination persists in the legal system with no intention of remedying it. Not only are black citizens being discriminated outside a court room, but also inside where an offense has not been committed. The selection of jurors must be based on a selection of rules. However, it comes from years back, in 1987, black jurors were systematically dismissed. Reasons given as for the motive of their eliminations are not based upon the Batson v Kentucky case. Not making eye contact, being a social worker, divorced, female and/or being well educated are among the reasons brought up at the time of jury selection. It is critically coming out of control how discriminatory the system has become and the fact that the appellant courts continue

Currently, anyone who is a United States citizen, a legal adult, and a registered voter can be randomly selected to attend jury duty as a citizen juror. Some critics of this system believe citizen jurors are not ideal because they do not know or understand the law and are too likely to act upon their passions, emotions, or prejudices. These critics would prefer juries to be comprised of professional jurors because they should be less prone to passions, emotions, and prejudices than citizen jurors, and instead be more apt to incorporate their professional experience and knowledge of the law to determine verdicts. However, because jurors are required to make decisions based purely on evidence presented at the specific trial in question, (Mushlin, 2007. p. 241) some people argue that professional jurors may bring too much background knowledge into the decision-making process. This possible personal and professional bias by professional jurors may result in speculations about whether the professionals are

As humans we pride ourselves of our indivuality and diversity as a species. Every different person brings new thoughts or point of views. We can say “justice for all”, all we want in our pledge of allegiance however this is illogical because each judge is different as an individual and has different point of views. The severity of a punishment corresponding with a crime has more to do with the make up of the jury, the judge, the defendant, and etc. In 2014, a study showed that jury’s in Washington State were three times more likely to recommend the death penalty for a black defendant rather then a white defendant for similar crimes. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) . This shows a clear bias and discrimination of different types of defendants, one clearly having the upper hand. However race doesn’t only affect a defendant’s future, gender does as well. Only 2% of women make up the total amount of the death row population. (NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Jan. 1, 2015). The factors for someone receiving death row don’t even stop there. Something as irrelevant as their social class can make them more vulnerable to death row. If a defendant can’t afford an attorney then they will be issued a court appointed attorney. These attorneys’s happen to be some of the most overworked and inexperienced attorney’s. Fresh out of law school or just overwhelmed by the amount of cases

In recent decades, the Judicial Systems failures and shortcomings to proportionally represent minorities and women of our diverse nation has quickly become a controversial issue. “The United States is more diverse than ever, but its state judges are not. While we recognize that citizens are entitled to a jury of their peers who will be drawn from a pool that reflects the surrounding community, Americans who enter the courtroom often face a predictable presence on the bench: a white male” (Chase, Greenman, Liss, Torres-Spelliscy, 2010). While the United states continues grow into a melting pot of diversification, there has been little spill over into the  judicial system.