Opinion ID: 1747978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fair Cross-Section Claim

Text: The Sixth Amendment requires that juries be selected from venires that represent a fair cross-section of the community. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 526, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975). That requirement is essential to fulfill the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of an impartial jury in criminal trials. Id. 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 within 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. State v. Kinder, 942 S.W.2d 313, 337 (Mo. banc 1996). To demonstrate systematic exclusion, a defendant must prove unfair under-representation of the excluded group on his venire and in general on other venires in the relevant judicial system near the time of his trial. Singleton v. Lockhart, 871 F.2d 1395, 1398 (8th Cir.1989). In this case, the record does not support Appellant's claim that he was denied his right to a jury selected from a fair cross-section of the community. The record shows that while approximately 4.5% of the population of Cape Girardeau County are African-American, approximately 5.2% (7 out of 133) of the venirepersons who appeared in Appellant's case were African-American.