42 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
42 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
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STACKING THE JURY IN GEORGIA
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We have been informed by an alert correspondent of a likely
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jury-rigging scheme in south Georgia. It appears that the local
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legal establishment draws names for the jury pool from a less
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than representative cross section of the local eligible
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population. It is known that some people are selected repeatedly
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in short periods of time, while others are seldom selected--once
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in twenty years, for instance.
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In addition, a secret list of jurors who have given guilty
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verdicts in the past is maintained by the District Attorney. A
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local defense attorney petitioned the court for a copy of that
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list because it gave the D.A. an unfair advantage during jury
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selection, but the judge refused to require the D.A. to release
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the list.
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The question, of course, is are people being selected over
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and over again for "hanging juries"? The D.A. could build an
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impressive conviction record by doing this, but defendants'
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rights to a fair trial would be shredded!
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A local attorney points out that conviction-prone jurors are
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the kind of people insurance companies love to have hear
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personal-injury cases, and they tend to side with polluters
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against environmentalists, and with the establishment against
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civil rights plaintiffs. The Jury Commission is scrambling to
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cover its tracks now that questions have been raised.
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It may be that variants of this kind of sleazy operation are
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common throughout the country. If you are rarely or never called
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for jury duty despite being registered to vote and licensed to
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drive, perhaps a little digging around might yield some
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interesting information.
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If and when jury-rigging can be identified in a local
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judicial district, the press might be very interested in what you
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have uncovered. Such information could be of great utility in
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promoting awareness of FIJA, and could be used to rally excluded
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groups around the issue of jury rights.
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