Opinion ID: 1621897
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: failure to challenge composition of jury panels

Text: Kinder asserts that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge the selection procedures and composition of the grand and petit jury panels in Jefferson County. A criminal defendant does have a constitutional right to the unbiased selection of a jury drawn from a cross-section of the community. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 364, 99 S.Ct. 664, 668-69, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). To establish a prima facie violation of the fair cross-section requirement, the defendant must show (1) that the group alleged to be excluded is a distinctive group in the community; (2) that the representation of this group in venires from which juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3) that this under-representation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process. Id. Kinder has not even attempted to argue that the second or third elements could have been established in this case, other than his allegation that the venire panel was entirely white in his case. Evidence as to the composition of a single jury panel is inadequate to meet the requirements of Duren. State v. Williams, 767 S.W.2d 87, 90 (Mo.App.1989). The motion court did not clearly err in finding that counsel was not ineffective for failing to challenge the composition and selection procedures of the jury.