Supremes Take Up Case That Could Open Door To Race-Baiting Jurors

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

Courts: When Hillary Clinton and other liberals claim “systemic racism” in criminal justice, they’re not just talking about cops and courts. They also think juries are racist, and they’re pushing “reforms” to second-guess their verdicts.

 

Several liberal groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, are backing a major lawsuit that aims to subject jurors to investigation for racial bias after they convict criminals.

 

If they succeed, defense lawyers could challenge convictions based on the vaguest notions of bias, and there are liberal judges who would no doubt agree to overturn them.

 

This week the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear their crusading case: Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado.

 

Hispanic immigrant Miguel Pena-Rodriguez claims his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury was violated when the state convicted him of criminal sexual contact with two teenage girls. Despite overwhelming evidence against him, Pena-Rodriguez insists he was railroaded because a juror was biased against illegal immigrants.

[Draggingtree]

Court to rule on challenge to juror bias

By Lyle Denniston on Apr 4, 2016 at 3:14 pm

 

The Supreme Court on Monday took on a long-standing dispute over the privacy of jury deliberations, agreeing to decide whether jurors can be questioned after a trial is over about one of their colleagues’ support for a guilty verdict because of the defendant’s racial or ethnic identity. The case of Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado will be argued and decided in the Court’s next Term, starting in October.

 

Most states, along with the federal courts, have rules that bar the questioning of jurors about claims that one of the members of their panel engaged in misconduct while the jurors were making up their minds. The idea behind such rules is that jurors should be able to ponder verdicts without worrying about being second-guessed later about the decisions they made, and how those were made. The specific question the Justices will decide is when the enforcement of that rule would interfere with the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/04/court-to-rule-on-challenge-to-juror-bias/#more-240938