Opinion ID: 2259150
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: venire panel selection unconstitutional

Text: Appellant argues that his Sixth Amendment guarantee of an impartial jury trial was violated because minorities were under-represented on his jury venire panel. [39] Mere under-representation of a minority group on a jury panel does not constitute unconstitutional discrimination per se. Commonwealth v. Jones, 465 Pa. 473, 480, 350 A.2d 862, 866 (1976) (citing Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 208, 85 S.Ct. 824, 829, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965)). To show that a jury selection system is unconstitutional, appellant must show that the procedures as designed or implemented are likely to result in juries unrepresentative of a cross-section of the community, or that the procedures have continually failed to represent certain identifiable groups over a period of time. Commonwealth v. Jones, 465 Pa. 473, 477, 350 A.2d 862, 865 (1976) (citing Commonwealth v. Butler, 448 Pa. 128, 133, 291 A.2d 89, 91 (1972)). Appellant fails to make the requisite showing with his bare, unsubstantiated assertion that his venire panel contained two (2) minority members out of a total of eighty-four (84), without any mention of the procedures that were utilized to obtain this venire panel, and without any contention that certain identifiable groups have been underrepresented over time. Thus, appellant is not entitled to relief on this claim.