Across the country, our nation’s juries fail to represent the racial, ethnic, and socio-economic diversity of the communities from which they are drawn. While a variety of factors contribute to these disparities, including the use of limited source lists, language barriers, discriminatory use of peremptory strikes, and compensation rates, one of the most impactful is the exclusion of those with prior criminal convictions. According to Prison Policy Initiative, laws that exclude individuals with a criminal record from serving on a jury bar more than 20 million individuals from jury service. Since people of color are over-criminalized in the legal system, these jury exclusion laws disproportionately impact communities of color. This harm is compounded when accounting for the overrepresentation of people of color as an accused individual and underrepresentation of people of color as jurors.
Research has shown diverse juries do their job better. Racially diverse juries deliberate longer, get more facts correct, rectify more errors, are more willing to discuss issues of race, and consider a broader range of evidence. In short, they get it right more often. In addition, public confidence in the accuracy, fairness, and legitimacy of a jury’s decision increases substantially when the jury that rendered the verdict reflects the community it is supposed to be representing.
On Thursday, April 21st, 2022, NACDL hosted Unlocking the Jury Box: How Felony Disenfranchisement Contributes to America’s Jury Diversity Problem. This panel discussion tackled the impact of felony disenfranchisement laws on jury service, jury diversity, and the importance of representative juries. The panel discussion was moderated by NACDL’s Public Defense Counsel Monica Milton, and featured Naila Awan, Director of Advocacy at Prison Policy Initiative; Nina Chernoff, Professor at CUNY School of Law; and Sodiqa Williams, General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Supportive Reentry Division at Safer Foundation.
Webinar Resources
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Rigging the Jury: How Each State Reduces Jury Diversity by Excluding People with Criminal Records, Ginger Jackson-Gleich, Prison Policy Initiative, February 18, 2021.
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Twenty Million Angry Men: The Case for Including Convicted Felons in Our Jury System, James Binnall, 2021 (book)
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From the Community to the Courtroom: Increasing Diversity and Access to the Jury Box (3-Part NACDL Webinar Series)
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Whitewashing the Jury Box: How California Perpetuates the Discriminatory Exclusion of Black and Latinx Jurors, Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, June 2020.
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Jury Duty is the Next Big Step for Felons' Rights, Jacob Rosenburg, Mother Jones, May 21, 2019.
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Summonsing Criminal Desistance: Convicted Felons' Perspectives on Jury Service, James M. Binnall, Cambridge University Press, December 2018.
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Felons barred from jury duty: An unjustified punishment, James M. Binnall, The Conversation, November 5, 2018.
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Jury diversity in the age of mass incarceration: an exploratory mock jury experiment examining felon-jurors’ potential impacts on deliberations, James M. Binnall, Psychology, Crime & Law, 2018.
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Lack of Jury Diversity: A National Problem with Individual Consequences, Ashish S. Joshi and Christina T. Kline, American Bar Association, September 1, 2015.
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Casual Ostracism: Jury Exclusion on the Basis of Criminal Convictions, Anna Roberts, Minnesota Law Review Vol. 98 (2013),
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The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials, Shamena Anwar, Patrick Bayer, and Randi Hjalmarsson, 127 Q.J.Econ. 1017,1021,1032 (2012).
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Mapping the Racial Bias of the White Male Capital Juror: Jury Composition and the "Empathetic Divide", Mona Lynch and Craig Haney, Law & Society Review, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2011).
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A Jury of None: An Essay on the Last Acceptable Form of Civic Banishment, James M. Binnal, Dialectal Anthropology 34, 533-538 (2010).
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On Racial Diversity and Group Decision Making: Identifying Multiple Effects of Racial Composition on Jury Deliberations, Samuel Sommers, J. Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 90, No. 4, 597– 612 (2006).
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Race, Diversity, and Jury Composition: Battering and Bolstering Legitimacy, Lesia Ellis and Shari Siedman Diamond, 78 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 1033 (2003).
