Opinion ID: 1621920
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Selection of jury panel

Text: For his first allegation of error, Lee asserts that the use of voter registration records to select the jury panel in his case denied him a jury comprised of a true cross-section of the community. At the end of voir dire, Lee, who is African-American, observed that only ten of the seventy-five venirepersons assembled were African-American. Lee claims that the State failed to rebut his statistical evidence of systematic exclusion of African-Americans from the jury panel in his case. 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. Danzie v. State, 326 Ark. 34, 930 S.W.2d 310 (1996); Davis v. State, 325 Ark. 194, 925 S.W.2d 402 (1996). It is axiomatic that the State may not deliberately or systematically deny to members of a defendant's race the right to participate, as jurors, in the administration of justice. Davis v. State, supra ; Sanders v. State, 300 Ark. 25, 776 S.W.2d 334 (1989). In order to establish a prima facie case of deliberate or systematic exclusion, a defendant must prove that: (1) The group alleged to be excluded is a distinctive group in the community; (2) the representation of this group in venires from which the juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3) this under-representation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). In this case, the first prong of the Duren test is clearly met, as African-Americans represent a distinctive group in the community. Regarding the second prong, Lee offered statistical evidence compiled from the 1990 census that Pulaski County has a population of 349,660, of which 58,280 are African-American citizens over age eighteen. Of the 349,600, the county has 200,297 registered voters. Lee also proffered the testimony of a mathematics professor that there was a two-percent chance that the jury panel in Lee's case could have been randomly selected from the population of Pulaski County. Lee did not meet his burden of proof by merely showing that the jury venire called in his case was not racially representative of the community. Davis v. State, supra ; Mitchell v. State, 323 Ark. 116, 913 S.W.2d 264 (1996). The second prong of the Duren test requires a fair and reasonable representation of the distinctive group in every venire from which juries are selected, not just the particular venire summoned at his trial. See Danzie, 326 Ark. at 43, 930 S.W.2d 310, citing Duren, 439 U.S. at 364-66, 99 S.Ct. at 668-70. Lee has not provided us with any evidence as to the number of African-Americans on every jury venire in Pulaski County. In order to satisfy the final prong in Duren , Lee must produce evidence that demonstrates that the alleged misrepresentation of African-Americans is due to a systematic exclusion in the jury-selection system itself. Lee acknowledges in his brief our previous holdings that, where the venire is chosen by computer, using the random-selection process maintained by Ark.Code Ann. § 16-32-103 (Repl.1994), there is no possibility of a purposeful exclusion of African-Americans. Because Lee failed to satisfy the second and third elements of the Duren test, the trial court did not err in denying his motion to prohibit the use of voter registration records to select the jury panel in his case.