Opinion ID: 386882
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Selection Procedure

Text: 89 We turn next to the jury selection procedure to determine whether the system was susceptible of abuse or not racially neutral. Castaneda, 430 U.S. at 494, 97 S.Ct. at 1280. 90 The record reveals that as a first step in the process the jury commission subpoenaed for jury service qualification individuals selected at random from the city directory. 22 These individuals were required to complete a questionnaire, including race, on the reverse side of the subpoena and to appear before the commission at which time the subpoena was surrendered. The commission eliminated all prospective jurors found to be not qualified or exempt 23 and excused others because of hardship. The names of those found to be qualified and not excused were to be placed in the general venire. 24 At this stage, as found by the district court for the year 1962, the proportion of blacks was reduced from approximately one-third of those summoned to 14.9% actually placed on the general venire, a disparity of 18%. The Supreme Court has recognized that there is an opportunity for abuse in a system which permits the race of the potential juror to be known by the people selecting the jury. See Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. 625, 92 S.Ct. 1221, 31 L.Ed.2d 536 (1972); Jones v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 24, 88 S.Ct. 4, 19 L.Ed.2d 25 (1967); Sims v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 404, 88 S.Ct. 523, 19 L.Ed.2d 634 (1967); Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545, 87 S.Ct. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599 (1967). See also Ross v. Wyrick, 581 F.2d 172 (8th Cir. 1978). The dramatic reduction in the representation of blacks at this level would suggest that advantage was taken of that opportunity. 91 Further potential for discrimination existed in the method of selecting grand juries. Twice a year a grand jury venire was drawn randomly from the general venire. The judge in charge of the grand jury for that term of court personally would select from the grand jury venire twelve persons for the grand jury. Again, the race was known. The fact that from September 1958 through September 1962 exactly two blacks were on each grand jury, except September 1960 when there was only one, negates the probability of random selection and forcefully indicates racial consideration. The testimony of two judges 25 buttressed Barksdale's argument that there was exclusion through limited inclusion, a practice we disapproved in Goins v. Allgood, 391 F.2d 692 (5th Cir. 1968) and Brooks v. Beto, 366 F.2d 1 (5th Cir. 1966). 26 92 The statistician who testified for appellant indicated that the probability of having exactly two blacks on each of those juries but one, given the amount of variance in the number of blacks on the venire, is less than one in a thousand. See also Finkelstein, The Application of Statistical Decision Theory to the Jury Discrimination Cases, 80 Harv.L.Rev. 338 (1966) (utilizing the grand jury sequence in Barksdale as an illustration of systematic discrimination). 27 The district court made no finding of fact on this point, concluding that it was faced with totally opposing views of competent and qualified experts. 93 Appellant's expert testified that the probability was less than one in a thousand that the 2-2-2-2-1-2-2-2-2 sequence was produced by random selection. The state's expert, on the other hand, testified that given the percentage of blacks on each venire, having two black grand jurors on a jury was not statistically unusual. This is undisputed. The question is whether the consistent selection of two black grand jurors over a period of years is sufficiently unusual to show a selection process not racially neutral. As the state's expert did not address himself to that question, the only evidence in the record is the testimony of appellant's expert. The trial judge's finding that the evidence was hopelessly conflicting was, therefore, in error. I conclude that the sequence of black representation on the grand juries from September 1958 to September 1962 was sufficiently unlikely to indicate that the selection process was not racially neutral. 94 The significant underrepresentation proved by the statistical evidence, coupled with the evidence that the selection process was not racially neutral and afforded opportunities for abuse, presented a prima facie case of discrimination. Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977).