Opinion ID: 2052508
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the right to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community.

Text: Prior to trial, defense counsel filed a notice of objection to the jury panel, wherein he objected to the underrepresentation on the prospective jury panel of members of Donald's race, Native Americans. The matter was brought on for a pretrial hearing after which the trial court overruled Donald's objection. On appeal, Donald urges that the absence of all Native Americans on his petit jury panel, coupled with the presence of only one Native American on the petit jury panel that was at issue in State v. Soft, 329 N.W.2d 128 (S.D.1983), is prima facie evidence that there is racial discrimination in jury selection in Walworth County. Donald relies on SDCL 16-13-10.1 which, in pertinent part, provides: It is the policy of the state of South Dakota that all litigants in the courts of this state entitled to trial by jury shall have the right to grand and petit juries selected at random from a fair cross-section of the community in the municipality, district or county where the court convenes.... He also relies on State v. Hall, 272 N.W.2d 308, 311 n. 1 (S.D.1978), for the proposition that smaller percentages (those of less than 15 percent) over a long period of time may support a challenge that the selection process does not provide a fair cross-section. We find Donald's argument unpersuasive for the reason that he relies on only two factors: the fact that there were no Native Americans on the panel from which his jury was chosen, and the fact that there was only one Native American on the panel discussed in Soft, supra . In our opinion, this does not establish a prima facie case. SDCL ch. 16-13, which prescribes the method of selection of jury lists and panels, provides for selection of names for the master jury selection list for the county by the jury selectors, the clerk of the circuit court, the chairman of the board of county commissioners and the county auditor. The election precincts constitute jury districts, each of which is to be represented on the master jury list in proportion to the number of votes cast for governor in the last gubernatorial election. The precinct (voters) registration list constitutes the list from which the selectors shall prepare the master jury list. In United States v. Clifford, 640 F.2d 150 (8th Cir.1981), where the federal jury selection process was attacked, the court upheld the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1861 et seq., which provides for random selection of jurors from voter registration lists. Section 1861 tracks word for word the provision of the first sentence of SDCL 16-13-10.1. In Soft, supra, we noted that statistics showed 5.86% of the Walworth County population and 9.36% of the City of Mobridge population were comprised of Native Americans. The record does not reflect percentages of those who were registered to vote. In Clifford, supra, the Eighth Circuit said: [T]here has been no showing that juries are not selected from a fair cross section of the community or that there has been exclusion of jurors based on any basis other than failure to register to vote..... The mere fact that one identifiable group of individuals votes in a lower proportion than the rest of the population does not make a jury selection system illegal or unconstitutional. 640 F.2d at 156. We affirm the decision of the trial court to deny the objection.