NJSBA HQ NJSBA headquarters, New Brunswick, NJ. Credit: Google

Capitol Report

NJSBA to the NJ Supreme Court: Jury selection bias demands awareness, education, long-term solutions

In anticipation of the Judicial Conference on Jury Selection last week, the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) formed the Working Group on Jury Selection to take a hard look at the jury selection process and the role of bias in it. The judicial conference was called by the New Jersey Supreme Court in its opinion in State v. Andujar, 247 N.J. 275 (2021), which took to task a prosecutor who ran an unauthorized background check on a Black potential juror following the lower court's denial of a for-cause dismissal of the juror.

"In pursuit of a system that best serves the residents of this state who turn to the courts to resolve their disputes, the time has come to reframe how New Jersey effectively addresses both intentional and implicit discrimination in all of its expressions," said the NJSBA in its report. "This endeavor can and will have historic implications for our system of justice moving forward, and it must be given the time, attention and analysis it requires and deserves."