In People v Smith and Hubbard, the court reversed and remanded based on geographical exclusion. Kalamazoo circuit judge Richard Lamb granted retrials saying that a faulty jury selection process for years resulted in too few minority group members being picked. He ruled that the net effect of the jury selection process had been to exclude members of a distinctive group in the community.
THE SIXTH AMENDMENT GUARANTEES THAT THE PETIT JURY WILL BE SELECTED FROM A POOL OF NAMES REPRESENTING A FAIR CROSS SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY.
The equal protection clause guarantees criminal defendants that the prosecution will not exclude members of their race, or on the false assumption that members of their race as a group are not qualified to serve as jurors.
A STATE MAY NOT DRAW ITS PURSUANT PROCEDURES BUT THEN RESORT TO DISCRIMINATION AT OTHER STAGES IN SELECTION PROCESS.
Lockhart v Meree[1986], Buchanan v Kentucky[1987]
The court also stressed the purposes of the cross section requirement. [1] avoiding the possiblity that the composition of juries would be arbitrarily skewed in such a way as to deny criminal defendants the benefit of the common-sense judgement of the community [2] avoiding the appearance of unfairness and [3] ensuring against deprivation of often historically disadvantaged groups of their right as citizens to serve on the juries in criminal cases; lockhart
The three member jury selection committee is white, as well as the key elected and appointed court adminstration. There should at least be one black representative on the selection committee and other key adminstrative positions in order to help prevent discrimination.
Berrien County court cannot offer any proof of whether or not the questionaires were actually returned or even mailed out. Our experience tells us that Louise Stine and Linda la Porta are not trustworthy.
Foreknowledge of where blacks live allowed Louise Stine and Linda Laporta [1] the opportunity to weed out potential black jurors prior to inserting their names into the computer for random picks [2] the option to send the questionnaires to less affluent black neighborhoods where people are less likely to return the questionnaires [3] they can virtually hand pick the black potential jurors for the 25-30 juror panels [this allows them to appoint selected juror panels to certain cases depending on race]. Hand picking juries must come to an end in Berrien County and across the country.
