Opinion ID: 755176
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Challenge to the Venire Under the Fair Cross Section

Text: Requirement 45 Gunn asserts that the jury pool from which the petit jury was struck violated the fair cross section requirement. This assertion is based not on the fact that the venire contained only one black person, but on: 1) the fact that several potential jurors had previously served on juries in cases where the same prosecutor had represented the government, and 2) Gunn's counsel's allegation that the prosecutor hasn't lost any cases (an allegation that, as the district court pointed out, was completely untrue). Thus, Gunn's argument goes, the venire was not a fair and impartial cross section of the community because it was full of potential jurors who had shown a willingness and propensity to convict, especially when paired with this particular prosecutor. 46 The Supreme Court held in Taylor v. Louisiana that the selection of a petit jury from a representative cross section of the community is an essential component of the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. 419 U.S. 522, 528, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975). Explaining the holding, the Taylor Court emphasized that: Defendants are not entitled to a jury of any particular composition, but the jury wheels, pools of names, panels, or venires from which juries are drawn must not systematically exclude distinctive groups in the community and thereby fail to be reasonably representative thereof. Id. at 538, 95 S.Ct. 692 (citation omitted). A prima facie case of a fair cross section violation requires the defendant to show: 47 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 underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process. 48 Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 364, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). 49 We are not prepared to hold that a complaint such as Gunn's triggers fair cross section analysis because we do not believe that a group of persons defined by their prior jury service and alleged disposition to render a particular verdict can be distinctive in the community for purposes of the first Duren element. Gunn therefore fails to make out a prima facie violation of the fair cross section requirement. Moreover, the district court in this case found that the panel was impartial, a finding entitled to deference and reversible only upon an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Apodaca, 666 F.2d 89, 94 (5th Cir.1982) (finding no abuse of discretion in denying a challenge for cause where a potential juror formerly connected with the FBI had averred that she could be impartial in weighing the testimony of FBI witnesses). This case presents no such abuse of discretion, particularly where Hill's counsel asked the potential jurors whether their prior jury service would impact their ability to decide this case fairly and impartially, Gunn's counsel stressed that seated jurors would be required to exercise their own independent judgment and decide the case based on the facts, and no juror indicated in response to these questions that they doubted their ability to so serve. We conclude that neither an abuse of discretion nor a constitutional error occurred with respect to the composition of the jury pool. 50