Screwy
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You really have to wonder if the government lawyers in the Scooter Libby perjury trial are asleep at the wheel. How is it possible in a city like Washington, D.C. where blacks outnumber whites two-to-one for them to have found a jury of ten whites and two blacks, and no black men?
21 Responses to “Screwy”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
I was going to say that many black men are, unfortunately, deprived of their right to vote owing to having been convicted of felonies – the percentage of black to white in the penitentiaries is out of all proportion to the percentage in the general population- and consequently would not be eligible to serve on a jury. But maybe that isn’t enough of a difference to account for it. Just a stray thought.
That would imply that every black man in D.C. is in jail or has been in jail. That doesn’t add up.
You’re right. It was just a random thought.
How many African-Americans were in the venire, the pre-selection group of potential jurors?
A number of people get selected out of the venire by their answers to a questionnaire concerning length of time available, employer policies for leave of absence for jury service, child care obligations, etc.
Hey Ollie, don’t you remember that so many potential jurors were weeded out because they didn’t trust Dick Cheney? In this day and age, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t mistrust that man already.
When I heard the jury pool was mostly white, mostly government and/or press, I first thought of Runaway Jury, which is to say that the jury selection computers had been hacked.
In the voir dire, attorneys are allowed to make “premptory challenges” to jurors, meaning they can strike them from the pool without question or argument. If the defense determined that black men would be more likely to find Libby guilty, that’s almost definitely why it happened- especially since, as you noted yourself, the city is majority black, and African-American men are the highest demographic percentage of voters most likely to oppose Bush/Cheney’s political policies.
Not saying I agree with that policy or the attorney’s strategies, but you asked how, and that’s pretty much why.
As I understand it, DC’s pretty terrible about following up on jury subpoenas, so it’s very easy for people to ignore them. As a result you’re going to have a disproportionate number of professionals who have the time, the economic security and (perhaps?) the cultural inclination (acquired in their ports of origin) to show up for jury duty. Most of those people are going to be from the overwhelming white-ness of Northwest.
Wouldn’t a better report have told us the proportion of the jury pool to begin with? Did the jury pool match the demographics of the city?
What is the purpose of this statement without context?
I think August is right. Blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic – probably the most faithful political constituency the Party has. So when there is a highly publiciczed trial concerning key figures in the oppositon party……
The Supreme Court ruled in Batson v. Kentucky that jurors cannot be stricken solely on race, without other valid cause.
hedley
It wouldn’t be on race – but on political ideology – which overlaps race in his case.
Dugger, the defense would be required to prove that at a hearing.
I was going to say that …
Good thing you didn’t, then.
Dugger, are you claiming that Scooter can only get a fair trial with a jury of Republicans?
As fair as FOX.
hedley
It would then get down to what constitutes ‘proof’. Future bias is never provable, but potential jurors are dismissed for bias.
Certainly if we took a jury made up of only NRA members and tried say Chuck Schumer for whatever, I doubt his backers would accept that – but I bet the % of Democrats in the NRA is not much diffrent than the number of black Rs.
Quaker.
No, but I am claiming that politics and the coverage thereof has become pervasive and that when a highly visible political person is tried in or by a heavily one sided opposing political constiuency,the likelihood of a fair trial is remote.
I mean Democrats swear almost universally, don’t they, that Bush lied?
Future bias is never provable, but potential jurors are dismissed for bias.I mean Democrats swear almost universally, don’t they, that Bush lied?
ROTFL.
Most folks in the reality-based community do.
No, but I am claiming that politics and the coverage thereof has become pervasive and that when a highly visible political person is tried in or by a heavily one sided opposing political constiuency,the likelihood of a fair trial is remote.
If the rights of the accused can’t be guaranteed under a unified system of jurisprudence, then partition is the only solution.
You guys want the north or south?
Dugger, I am not disagreeing with you. Simply stating that jurors cannot be removed via peremptory challenge for race alone — there must be some other factor.
Hedley
OK.
Quaker
South
duros
Their attitudes