Opinion ID: 1387817
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Challenge of the Array of Jury Panel

Text: No written challenge was made to the jury panel, but at the beginning of the trial in August 1973 counsel raised two questions regarding it, one that there was not a black on the jury panel, and a second, that there had been no list of trial jurors compiled as required by § 18-142.1, W.S. 1957, 1973 Cum.Supp., a statute which had been passed and approved the preceding March. Adverting to the first point, the gist of defendant's contention is that there had been in the past years only a few blacks on juries in Laramie County and that there were none on this panel. She recognizes our holdings in Simms v. State, Wyo., 492 P.2d 516, 520, and Lofton v. State, Wyo., 489 P.2d 1169, 1171-1172, but seemingly contends that they were improper decisions and should be reversed since they place too great a burden upon defendant to show that there has been a systematic exclusion of blacks from jury service solely because of color. In so arguing she suggests that we have misinterpreted Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587, 55 S.Ct. 579, 79 L.Ed. 1074. We have again reviewed Norris as well as Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. 625, 92 S.Ct. 1221, 31 L.Ed.2d 536; Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545, 87 S.Ct. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599, and Hopkins v. State, 254 Miss. 484, 182 So.2d 236. None of these deal with situations similar to the one at bar and none of them indicate that merely because no blacks are on a jury panel there is a presumption of systematic and intentional exclusion because of color. We again call attention to Fay v. New York, 332 U.S. 261, 284, 67 S.Ct. 1613, 1626, 91 L.Ed. 2043 (as we did in Lofton, 489 P.2d at 1171-1172), where it was said, It is fundamental in questioning the composition of a jury that a mere showing that a class was not represented in a particular jury is not enough; there must be a clear showing that its absence was caused by discrimination   . We adhere to our view expressed in Simms v. State, supra, 492 P.2d at 520 (n. 2), where we indicated that the simplest method by which any defendant could challenge a jury as being selected by systematic and intentional exclusion of any group of persons would be to present the names of various persons who were entitled to be on the jury list and whose names were not contained thereon. This would impose no great burden and would permit the one claiming to be denied a fair trial a workable method for meeting the above-mentioned prerequisite of Fay. As to the insistence that there was some defect in the jury panel because it was constituted from the list as required to be established by Wyoming law prior to May 25, 1973, the argument is specious, being based upon the contention that the statute required a certain jury list to be compiled within ninety days after the adjournment of the session of the legislature at which the law was enacted. The statute reads that the county clerk should deliver the list on or before the second Monday of January of each year. The trial was held in August following the passage of the Act, and the statute did not require its mandate to be fulfilled until the following January.