Opinion ID: 410398
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Jury Venire.

Text: 13 Fulford's next contention is that the jury venire was unconstitutionally selected because blacks were excluded under the same selection process held to be unconstitutional in Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. 625, 92 S.Ct. 1221, 31 L.Ed.2d 536 (1972). Alexander held that Louisiana's method for selecting veniremen was not racially neutral 3 and therefore presumptively violative of a black defendant's rights under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment where no blacks served on that defendant's jury. 405 U.S. at 632, 92 S.Ct. at 1226. It is arguable that Fulford does not have the requisite standing to press such a claim, 4 however, on the present facts we need not reach this issue. Fulford has not submitted evidence to establish the racial composition of the petit jury venire, a threshold requirement for comparing the percentage of blacks on the venire with the percentage of blacks in the community at large. 405 U.S. at 630, 92 S.Ct. at 1225. Moreover, Fulford has not demonstrated that the selection process used in 1968 when Alexander was tried was still in effect four years later. In consequence, this argument presents no ground for habeas relief. 14