Summary
U. S. Supreme Court decision rejecting a murderer's claim that his conviction was invalid becasue the jury selection process did not maintain a racial quota. Diapolis Smith was convicted of second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of a man during an argument in a bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The address his bias claim, a hearing was conducted to review the process for summoning citizens to jury duty. Evidence showed that, while the system was color-blind, the percentageof black excused for childcare and transportation hardship was greater than for whites. Experts testified that more blacks than whites in the county were unemployed, single mothers and that fewer black households owned automobiles. Based upon this, the Michigan Supreme Court held that there was no systematic bias in the process. Later, the Federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Smith's conviction, concluding that there was racial bias. CJLF joined the case to argue that the Federal court ruling was improper because, based upon the evidence, the state court's holding was not unreasonable, and that a requirement for racial quotas would force single mothers and those without transportation to serve. [CJLF brief in PDF.]
