at demographic statistics for other juries. Alex had given her use of the conference room as her temporary office, for the duration of the case. She felt rather guilty about this, considering that Alex’s own office was considerably smaller and had no natural light on its own, let alone a stunning view of the Bay. Juanita, whose reception desk was in the large open area of the office, had told her in confidence that the conference room had once been used by a legal intern and that it had some painful memories for Alex. She had decided not to push for more information, realizing that Juanita had said more than she intended and that it was something Alex certainly didn’t want to talk about.
Clicking on one link after another as she pursued the chain of data, she didn’t really expect to find anything. She knew that blacks were under-represented in juries for a variety of reasons. But she suspected that the results of her labors would be to find a high degree of variation from cases to case — proving the common opinion of the judge, the prosecutor and even Alex, that it was just a statistical blip in this case with no significance whatsoever.
And yet, part of her was still hoping.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” asked Juanita.
“Thanks,” said Andi, barely looking up. Juanita had seemed hostile when Andi first started working here, and Andi couldn’t escape the feeling that it might have something to do with their differing sexuality. But after less than a day, Juanita seemed to be much nicer — almost suspiciously kind — and Andi even began to have doubts whether her initial assessment of Juanita’s sexuality had been correct. At any rate, Juanita was a gentler soul than Alex… and certainly a gentler soul than Gene.
While she waited for the coffee, Andi returned her attention to the computer screen and thought about the issue that had been bugging her in court. Yes it was true that many blacks didn’t register to vote. But that was precisely why the State didn’t rely solely on the voting register, but used driver registration too. The one type of ownership that was impervious to socio-economic discrimination was car ownership. The widespread availability of cheap used cars meant that all but the most poverty-stricken members of society could afford one. And even if they didn’t own a car, most adult Americans could drive. And all of those drivers were included in the jury pool.
That was why it was so troubling to Andi. In a small panel, one might sometimes get uneven or disproportionate results. But this was a panel of 150. An imbalance of this size was quite an anomaly. Could it have been just a random accident? Contra to what Sarah Jensen had assumed, she did understand statistics — having taken a course in the subject as part of her psychology studies — and was fully conversant with such concepts of Standard Deviation and Mean Standard Deviation. But she wasn’t satisfied that the small number of blacks on the panel was the result of such random deviation.
And she was determined to find out for sure.
The door opened and Juanita came in with the coffee and a smile. Andi returned the smile, but quickly gave her attention back to the computer monitor, making it clear that she had no time for small talk.
The first thing to do was log on to the census bureau and pull up the jury records for the various voting districts. Then she started looking at the statistics for jury composition. It was a slow and tedious procedure, getting the statistics from the various districts in a series of downloadable computer files and then cutting and pasting them into the statistical software package that she was using. But it had to be done. Finally, after several hours of painstaking work, she had enough data to build some graphic display charts, showing the demography of the populations and the corresponding average jury pools.
When she looked at the results it was frightening. There
And it went back five years.
Monday, 17 August 2009 — 18:10
“Once again, the case of Elias Claymore for the rape of Bethel Newton has managed to produce a surprise,” said Martine Yin. “And still before the trial has even started.”
The television flickered as the young man sat with his eyes practically glued to the screen.
“This time it was the defense making the surprises when this morning in court, Alex Sedaka’s co-counsel Andi Phoenix stood up to challenge the entire panel of prospective jurors. In a move that was quite unprecedented — or at least that hasn’t been seen since Sam Leibowitz’s celebrated defense of the Scottsboro boys — Ms Phoenix told the court that blacks were under-represented on the jury panel and moved that the panel be dismissed.”
The young man smiled with amusement as he pondered the irony of what was happening. He had been surprised when he heard about Andi Phoenix and her relationship with the woman who worked at the rape crisis center. It was a complete and utter coincidence. But an amusing coincidence nevertheless.
“However, the judge threw out the motion after some heated debate, culminating in a brief side bar.”
The young man considered going to the trial and sit there in the spectator’s section. But he realized that might be pushing his luck. There was however one aspect of the case that he wondered about. He had read a rumor on the web that this reporter and Alex Sedaka were in a relationship.
Monday, 17 August 2009 — 18:20
Alex was reading through the jury selection notes when he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in,” he said, not looking up.
The door swung open and Andi came stumbling into the room holding a computer print-out, unable to conceal the excitement on her face.
“I’ve got something that’ll knock your socks off!”
Alex looked up, responding to her mood as much as her words.
“Surprise me.”
“It’s about the representation of blacks on the jury.”
“You’re not still going on about that are you?”
“There’s been a new development.”
She was gushing now. Alex’s face remained skeptical, but he put his pen down to show that he was giving her his undivided attention.
“What about it?”
“I’ve checked the figures for jury selection in California for the last five years and guess what? The pattern holds. Blacks are under-represented on venire panels in
Alex thought to himself for a moment.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that jury panels in many counties have consistently under-represented blacks by a statistically significant amount. I can show you some charts to prove it.”
Over the next few minutes she showed Alex how blacks were under-represented not only on juries but also on venire panels before the voir dire. To Alex it was quite convincing, but he wasn’t ready to go off half-cocked — not yet at least.”
“Okay now let’s slow down here. First of all there are certain somewhat mundane factors that might have the effect of reducing the number of blacks on jury panels.”
“Such as what?” Andi challenged.
“For example, rightly or wrongly, a disproportionate number of blacks are incarcerated in penitentiaries and corrections institutes and jails. They’re ineligible to vote.”
Andi was shaking her head.
“I got the stats for that and used the statistical analysis software to hold constant for it.”
“Hold constant?”
“Factor it in. The imbalance is still there when you take it into account. Don’t forget I have the figures from
