Stratified Juror Selection: Cross-Section by Design

• NCJ Number: 171878
• Journal: Judicature Volume: 79 Issue: 5 Dated: (March-April 1996) Pages: 273-278
• Author(s): N J King; G T Munsterman
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

By manipulating the number of citizens summoned, qualified, or sent questionnaires on each of several multiple lists, a court can ensure racial and ethnic diversity on jury venires; however, the legality of this procedure remains unclear.

Abstract

Stratified selection, also known as structured or clustered sampling, is one method of restoring to venires the racial or ethnic diversity that is sometimes missing from original source lists or that is reduced during the process of qualification and summoning. By manipulating the number of citizens in each of several multiple smaller lists who are summoned, qualified, or sent questionnaires, a court can ensure that each of several populations is sampled proportionally and can target for oversampling those populations that continue to yield disproportionately fewer venire members. Potential jurors can be grouped according to whatever demographic characteristics are available to jury administrators, including residence, ethnicity, or race. Recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court provide two plausible, but so far untested, theories by which a defendant could seek relief from the decisions of juries chosen from venires constructed with racially stratified jury lists. A defendant may allege a violation of his/her own right to equal protection if he/she shares the race of those whose opportunities for jury service are reduced under the stratified system. Federal courts considering stratified systems should also anticipate challenges under the Jury Selection and Service Act. This statute requires Federal jurors to be "selected at random from a fair cross section of the community in the district or division wherein the court convenes" and prohibits "exclusion from service...on account of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or economic status." This act may erect even greater hurdles for race- or ethnicity-based selection systems. 30 footnotes