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Prejudice and Jury Selection

NCJ Number
87825
Journal
Journal of Black Studies Volume: 12 Issue: 4 Dated: (June 1982) Pages: 427-449
Author(s)
N Benokraitis; J A Griffin-Keene
Date Published
1982
Length
23 pages
Annotation
A 1973 mail survey of legal personnel directly associated with petit trial juries in eight Southern States found that blacks were often underrepresented in the jury selection process for both attitudinal and structural reasons and that prejudicial attitudes toward blacks had not decreased.
Abstract
The study surveyed defense attorneys, district attorneys, judges, jury commissioners, and district clerks in the courts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Of the total estimated population of 3,893 legal personnel, 1,495 or 38.4 percent usable questionnaires were obtained. Blacks were underrepresented in seven of the eight States at the initial jury selection stage, the jury wheel, partly because of the courts' reliance on discriminatory selection methods such as property tax rolls. Blacks were slightly overrepresented on the jury panel in four States, but significantly underrepresented on the jury box in five States. Although respondents often cited low black intelligence as a major reason for black disqualification from juries, many legal personnel including black attorneys suggested that failing to register to vote or low educational attainment also influenced low participation rates. As a group, all whites and some blacks expressed some prejudice toward blacks, and the degree of antiblack prejudice seemed higher than indicated in other studies. However, racial attitudes did not seem related to black jury participation rates, since court personnel with the most vehement antiblack attitudes were not necessarily from States with the most repressive exclusion of blacks from the jury system. This discrepancy between attitudes and behavior suggests that racially underrepresented juries are largely caused by institutional arrangements. Tables, 10 footnotes, and 50 references are included.

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