JUDGE DISMISSES ALL-WHITE JURY

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By Miriam Raftery

October 27, 2015 (Louisville, KY)--Can a black defendant get a fair trial with an all-white jury?

A judge in Louisville, Kentucky, says no – and he’s dismissed an entire jury because it lacked minorities in the trial of an African-American defendant facing drug charges.

“The concern is that the panel is not representative of the community,” said Judge Olu Stevens, who is African-American. Judge Stevens has previously dismissed another jury in a theft trial for the same reason, though the first time was at the request of a defense attorney.

Now the state’s Supreme Court will decide whether the judge has the power to compel a racially mixed jury.

On Nov. 18, after a 13-member jury chosen for a theft trial ended up with no black jurors, Stevens found it “troublesome” and dismissed the panel at the request of a defense attorney.

WDRB TV reports that a Racial Fairness Commission composed of judges, lawyers and citizens previously found that blacks were under-represented on Jefferson County’s juries, compared to the number of black people in the population.

The head of that commission, Appeals Court Judge Denise Clayton, called that under-representation “a problem.” Several black people in the community have complained that they were convicted by all-white juries and did not believe they had a fair trial.

But prosecutor Dorislee Gilbert argued that there was no proof the jury in the case now on appeal could not be fair and impartial, just because of their race.

Given racial tensions across America with high profile cases involving police and the criminal justice system, one can expect this case to be closely watched by legal experts and civil rights advocates.

Whatever Kentucky’s appellate court decides could potentially be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for justices in the nation’s highest court to determine whether or not a judge can take action unilaterally to assure racial diversity on juries. 


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