The art of picking a jury

NY Times:

When Does Kicking Black People Off Juries Cross a Constitutional Line?

The Supreme Court will consider whether a Mississippi prosecutor’s long record of excluding black jurors amounted to unconstitutional race discrimination.
Back when I was trying complex fraud cases in criminal courts I did not find black jurors prejudiced in favor of the accused.  In some cases, they were extremely strong prosecution jurors.  You always try to find any particular prejudices during the voir dire exam before the trial. 

When I was working in Houston, Harris County was constantly calling me to set on a panel.  Like most of the other potential jurors, I had work to do and was not eager to set on a jury.  On the occasions when I could not escape jury duty, I found it pretty boring and also found myself critiquing the lawyers' presentation and the way they framed questions.  My guess is that the blacks going through the process felt the same way about jury duty.

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