Stricken: The need for positive statutory law to prevent discriminatory peremptory strikes of disabled jurors

Imagine you are a physically handicapped person who has been called for jury service. The local courthouse has just undergone significant renovations. To improve access for the disabled, they have added, among other things, a wheelchair ramp to the main entrance, elevators to the courtrooms, and whe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cornell law review 2018-01, Vol.103 (2), p.437-464
Main Author: Benson, Jordan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Constitutional law
Criminal law
Equality
Health technology assessment
Juries
People with disabilities
Sex discrimination
Sexual orientation
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Summary:Imagine you are a physically handicapped person who has been called for jury service. The local courthouse has just undergone significant renovations. To improve access for the disabled, they have added, among other things, a wheelchair ramp to the main entrance, elevators to the courtrooms, and wheelchair seating in the courtroom and jury box. Interpreters can now be requested for deaf participants in court proceedings. These accommodations will make jury service much more convenient and comfortable for you than it would have been in the past. You tell the judge that you are more than able to serve on a jury, in spite of your disability, and have no biases that would render you unable to make a fair decision, and make it through the voir dire phase. It seems as though you are about to be seated on the petit jury and begin observing the trial, but then the prosecuting attorney uses peremptory strikes to remove you, along with the only two other jurors with a visible disability, from the jury with no explanation. Under existing equal protection law, neither you nor the defense attorney has any legal grounds to contest these strikes, or even to demand an explanation from the prosecutor as to why he used half of his peremptory strikes to remove all three disabled jurors from the venire.
ISSN:0010-8847