Opinion ID: 557865
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Unconstitutional Jury Composition

Text: 20 Cunningham alleges that the venire from which his grand and petit jury were drawn was unconstitutionally composed because both women and African-Americans were underrepresented by seventeen percent and fourteen percent, respectively. 6 Cunningham contends that this underrepresentation violates the fair cross-section requirement of the Sixth Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court held that Cunningham failed to make out a prima facie violation of either the Sixth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment. 7 21 Discriminatory selection of a jury venire may be challenged under the Sixth Amendment's requirement that the venire reflect a fair cross-section of the community. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). To establish a prima facie violation of the fair cross-section requirement, a petitioner must show (1) that the group underrepresented is a distinctive group in the community, 8 (2) that the underrepresentation in the venire is not fair and reasonable in relation to the group's number in the community, and (3) that this underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group from the selection process. Duren, 439 U.S. at 364, 99 S.Ct. at 668. Cunningham has met the first element of the prima facie case for a fair cross-section challenge. Women and African-Americans are distinctive community groups within the meaning of Duren. See Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965); Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975). 22 The jury pools from which Cunningham's grand and petit jury were selected were formed in accordance with an order entered in 1973 by United States District Judge Anthony Alaimo. Twilight Improvement Ass'n v. Jury Comm'n of Lincoln County, No. 1658, slip op. at 1-2 (D.Ga.1973). This order required the Lincoln County Jury Commissioners to select petit jury pools by picking every fifth name from the voter registration list and to create grand jury pools by choosing every third name from the petit jury list. Cunningham has submitted no evidence that the voter list from which these jury pools were selected has been tampered with in any way. There is also no evidence that jury pools selected in accordance with the federal order regularly or consistently contained a significant underrepresentation of any group. Compare Duren, 439 U.S. at 366, 99 S.Ct. at 669 (a large discrepancy occurred not just occasionally, but in every weekly venire for a period of nearly a year). Accordingly, Cunningham has failed to establish the third element of a prima facie case because he has not shown that the underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group[s] in the jury-selection process. Duren, 439 U.S. at 364, 99 S.Ct. at 668. 23 Discriminatory selection of a jury venire may also be challenged under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977). To establish a prima facie claim for an equal protection violation, a petitioner must show (1) that he or she is a member of a group capable of being singled out for discriminatory treatment, (2) that members of this group were substantially underrepresented on the venire, and (3) that the venire was selected under a practice providing an opportunity for discrimination. Castaneda, 430 U.S. at 494, 97 S.Ct. at 1280. 24 It is undisputed that the jury pools were selected in accordance with Judge Alaimo's order. Moreover, by requiring that jury commissioners select every fifth name from the voter registration list, Judge Alaimo's order ensured that selection would be entirely random and free of any opportunity for discrimination. Because Cunningham has failed to show that the venire was selected under a practice that provides an opportunity for discrimination, Cunningham's equal protection claim is also meritless. 9