From the Community to the Courtroom: Increasing Diversity and Access to the Jury Box

“The greatest service of citizenship is jury duty.” - Abraham Lincoln

Figuring out how to ensure jury diversity has plagued jurisdictions across the country for decades. Barriers to jury diversity can range from systemic and institutional obstacles to the discriminatory use of peremptory strikes. In this three-part webinar series titled “From the Community to the Courtroom: Increasing Diversity and Access to the Jury Box” the nation’s leading jury experts, scholars, and practitioners discussed why diverse juries matter, the challenges to achieving jury diversity, as well as what solutions and reforms are on the horizon.

Session 1: Why Diverse Juries Matter

Panelists discuss the jury selection process, its many steps, and why representativeness matters in the jury box.

Feaured Speakers: Nina Chernoff - Professor at the CUNY School of Law (moderator); Paula Hannaford – Director, Center for Jury Studies Valerie Hans – Charles F. Rechlin Professor of Law, Cornell Law School

Session 2: Ways to Increase Inclusiveness and Access to the Jury Box

Panelists discuss the many barriers people face in when trying to serve as jurors and what ways different stakeholders can increase inclusiveness and access.

Featured Speakers: Nina Chernoff - Professor at the CUNY School of Law (moderator); Jamie Binnall – Associate Professor of Law, Criminology, and Criminal Justice at California State University, Long Beach; Jasmine Gonzales Rose – Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law, Deputy Director of Research & Policy, BU Center for Antiracist Research; Catherine Grosso – Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law and co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT); Barbara O’Brien – Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law.

Session 3: Batson and Beyond

Panelists discuss the use of peremptory challenges, the shortcomings of the Batson decision, and avenues for reform in an age of new technologies.

Featured Speakers: Nina Chernoff - Professor at the CUNY School of Law (moderator); Stephen Bright- Harvey L. Karp Visiting Lecturer in Law, Yale Law School, represented Timothy Foster in Foster v. Chapman; Brendon Woods – Chief Public Defender in Alameda County; Sonia Rankin –Associate Professor of Law, University of New Mexico School of Law

Resources

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The Center for Jury Studies, (National Center for State Courts)
- Data dashboard (examine state practices regarding compensation, source lists, length of service, excusal rules, etc.)
The Juror Project (website)
A Call to Criminal Courts: Record Rules for Batson, Catherine Grosso and Barbara O’Brien, Kentucky Law Journal, Vol. 105 (2017).
Assessing and Achieving Jury Pool Representativeness, Judge William Caprathe (ret.), Paula Hannaford-Agor, Stephanie McCoy Loquvam, and Shari Seidman Diamond. Judges’ Journal • Vol. 55 No. 2, 2016.
Beyond Batson's Scrutiny: A Preliminary Look at Racial Disparities in Prosecutorial Preemptory Strikes Following the Passage of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act, Catherine Grosso and Barbara O’Brien, 46 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1623 (2013).
Color-Blind But Not Color-Deaf: Accent Discrimination in Jury Selection, Jasmine Gonzales Rose, 44 N.Y.U Rev. L. & Soc. Change 309 (2020).
No Records; No Right: Discovery & the Fair Cross-Section Guarantee, Nina Chernoff, 101 Iowa L.R. 1719 (2016)
Roadmap to a Representative Jury, Webinar, NACDL (2022-2024)

Minnesota Nebraska North Carolina

Systemic Negligence in Jury Operations: Why the Definition of Systemic Exclusion in Fair Cross Section Claims Must Be Expanded, Paula Hannaford-Agor, 59 Drake L. Rev. 761 (2011)
Whitewashing the Jury Box: How California Perpetuates the Discriminatory Exclusion of Black and Latinx Jurors, (Berkeley Law, Death Penalty Clinic, June 2020)
Why Won’t They Come? A Study of Juror Nonresponse and Failure-to-Appear in Harris County, Texas, NCSC and RTI International (2023)
More Perfect, Podcast, NPR (2017)

"At the trial of James Batson in 1982, the prosecution eliminated all the black jurors from the jury pool. Batson objected, setting off a complicated discussion about jury selection that would make its way all the way up to the Supreme Court. On this episode of More Perfect, the Supreme Court ruling that was supposed to prevent race-based jury selection, but may have only made the problem worse." For more information, click here.

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