Another reason for Bev to Veto RJA Repeal

You might get a "jury of your peers", if you're white, that is:

Implicit in the Racial Justice Act is that the makeup of juries can be manipulated to skew verdicts, and advocates of the historic law have provided numbers they contend show sweeping patterns of racial disparities. In Wake County, qualified African-American jurors were struck at 2.5 times the rate of all other jurors, and in Cumberland County, they were struck at 2.6 times the rate, according to the Michigan State University researchers.

For those who can't quite grasp how our system would allow this, here's a personal anecdote that may help you understand:

About ten years ago, my name came up for jury duty in a Federal court case. To make a long story less long, I had some fairly hot coals in the fire at work, and it was taking all my attention to preserve our customer's happiness (and the jobs that were depending on it), so getting out of this jury thing was foremost on my mind when I took one of those twelve chairs. Not very proud of that part, but if they ever had a convention of jury-duty-avoiders, all the hotels would be booked. ;)

Now, I didn't ask the judge if I could be excused (several others did, though), and I answered all voir dire questions honestly. But I knew something that many of my fellow prospective jurors probably did not: both sides (prosecution & defense) have a limited number of peremptory challenges they can exercise; having jurors removed without showing cause, and without even having to provide a reason to justify said removal. Remember that last part, because the only way to track that is using statistics.

So, while other jurors were taking their turns answering voir dire questions, I locked eyes with the (young African American male) defendent. I didn't smile, or frown, or cross my arms, or send any sort of body language which could be viewed as positive or negative. But I didn't look away, either. It was less than a minute before he leaned over to his attorney and whispered in his ear, and shortly after that, I was thanked and excused.

What that young man didn't know (could not have known), was that I might have been his best chance. Innuendo and theatrics mean less than nothing to me, and if the evidence against him had been weak or flawed, I would not just assume his guilt. But I can understand why he did what he did.

He knew, just like his attorney, the prosecuting attorney, the judge, and damned near everybody else in that courtroom, that racial bias is not an imaginary construct created by trial attorneys to game the system, it's a pervasive flaw in our societal structure that simply cannot be ignored or swept under the rug. Which is exactly what the Republican-led General Assembly is trying to do with the repeal of the Racial Justice Act.

And it must be Vetoed, so we can continue the important work of trying to refine our criminal justice system so it serves all of us equally.