When I wrote last week about seeing a jury panel in Norwich from which black males were entirely absent, I assumed there must be some reasonable explanation. So this week, when I subpoenaed state officials to an evidentiary hearing, I was stunned by what I learned. No one, apparently, has a clue about how and whether the state is doing more than playing lip-service to producing juries that represent a fair cross-section of the community.
How, I asked senior jury administrators from the Judicial Branch, am I to explain to my client, a young black man accused of murder, the fact that not one African-American man appeared to be interviewed as a juror? The Judicial Branch hasn’t a clue. It doesn’t keep records on race or ethnicity. The standard juror questionnaire informs potential jurors that demographic information is requested, but no one needs to respond to questions about their race or ethnicity if the question is offensive.
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