Opinion ID: 1057579
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: McMINN COUNTY'S PROCESS FOR SELECTING JURY VENIRES

Text: Mr. Hester asserts that the process used by McMinn County to select jury venires resulted in systematic, unconstitutional exclusion of the elderly, African-Americans, and Hispanics. While the Court of Criminal Appeals recognized that Mr. Hester had the right to have his jury selected from a fair cross-section of the community, it determined that age groups do not qualify as constitutionally significant distinct groups within a community. It also concluded that Mr. Hester failed to establish that the jury venire was not randomly selected or that either African-Americans or Hispanics were not fairly or reasonably represented on McMinn County's venires in relation to their number in the community. We conclude that Mr. Hester has failed to carry his burden of establishing a prima facie case of a violation of the Sixth Amendment's fair cross-section requirement.
We note at the outset that the trial court conducted the hearing regarding Mr. Hester's challenges to the process used by McMinn County to select jury venires on September 10, 2003 and that Mr. Hester's trial did not begin until March 8, 2005. Much of the evidence Mr. Hester presented at the September 10, 2003 hearing related to the venire that was ordered to report for jury service on June 9, 2003. [22] The jury that was actually seated for Mr. Hester's trial was not selected from this venire. Because of the length of the interval between the September 10, 2003 hearing and the trial, the jury for Mr. Hester's trial was selected from a venire that was called for jury service on December 2, 2003. The trial court apprised Mr. Hester's defense team that the challenge to the selection of the jury venire was premature on the jury that's [going to] try [Mr. Hester]. However, following the September 10, 2003 hearing, Mr. Hester's defense team did not attempt to obtain or present evidence regarding the process that McMinn County used to select the December 2, 2003 venire or to obtain a complete list of the persons summoned for this venire. Instead, the defense team waited until the afternoon before jury selection was scheduled to begin to challenge the process for selecting the December 2, 2003 venire. [23] The September 10, 2003 hearing focused on the jury venire that was called for service on June 9, 2003. This venire was obtained from a list of names of persons holding driver's licenses using software provided to McMinn County by Local Government Data Processing Corporation and information provided by the Tennessee Department of Safety. When an individual obtains a Tennessee driver's license or identification card, they receive a card with a distinctive number. The licenses and cards are issued in sequential numerical order. Thus, cards with lower numbers were issued before cards with higher numbers. When called upon to provide information to assist counties in selecting a jury venire, the Department of Safety uses these distinctive numbers to prepare a list of all drivers within a particular county who have a valid driver's license and who are eighteen years of age or older. Local Government Data Processing Corporation converts the data provided by the Department of Safety into a form that can be used by its software to electronically generate a jury venire. McMinn County selects jury venires twice each year using the data obtained from the Department of Safety [24] In this process, the county first excludes from consideration the individuals on the list with the two thousand lowest driver's license numbers. [25] Then the county determines the number of persons to be summoned to serve on the jury venire. Using these two numbers, the county's software then calculates the number that will be used as the increment for selecting names from the list. [26] McMinn County determined that 700 persons would be summoned for jury service on the June 9, 2003 venire. Accordingly, the software divided the number of individuals on the county driver's license list, excluding the first two thousand names, by 700 and derived the number 47. The number 10 was then selected and subtracted from 47 producing the number 37 which was then used as the increment for selecting the potential jurors from the list. Accordingly, the software selected the jury venire to be summoned on June 9, 2003 by picking every thirty-seventh name from the list of McMinn County residents with a driver's license, excluding the first two thousand names. As a result of this process, not only were the names of the first two thousand persons on the driver's license list excluded from consideration, the last seven thousand names on the list were likewise excluded from consideration. [27] Mr. Hester presented evidence that at the time the June 9, 2003 venire was chosen, 4.5% of McMinn County's population was African-American and 1.8% was Hispanic. He also presented evidence that the June 9, 2003 venire was chosen from a portion of McMinn County's driver's license list that was only 3.8% African-American and .38% Hispanic. In addition, he proved that the county's decision to skip the first two thousand persons on the list had the effect of excluding the oldest and whitest group of persons on the list. [28] Likewise, he proved that the second group that was skippedthe last seven thousand names on the listincluded the youngest and most racially diverse residents in the county. [29] Mr. Hester did not present evidence regarding the increment used to select the persons included on the December 2, 2003 jury venire. However, his evidence regarding the demographics of the persons on this venire highlighted differences between the makeup of the December 2, 2003 venire and the June 9, 2003 venire. The December 2, 2003 venire included 3.4% African-Americans and 0% Hispanics, and it included more young persons than the June 9, 2003 venire. [30] However, the percentage of African-Americans and Hispanics included on the December 2, 2003 venire was less than the percentage of these two groups on the June 9, 2003 venire. [31] The December 2, 2003 venire included only.3% of persons over the age of 75 despite the fact that 8.6% of the county's population and 7.3% of the persons on the county's driver's license list were over the age of 75. In broad strokes, Mr. Hester asserts that the manner in which McMinn County selects its jury venires is flawed by persistent structural defects attributable to its jury commissioners and its use of the same non-random methodology. Regrettably, his evidence with regard to both the June 9, 2003 venire and the December 2, 2003 venire is limited and incomplete. Based on the evidence presented at the September 2003 hearing, it appears that McMinn County may not be using a statistically proportionate drawing from its driver's license lists to select venires. However, the question before us now is whether Mr. Hester has made out a prima facie case that the methodology employed by McMinn County to select the jury venire from which his jury was drawn violated his constitutional right to a jury composed of a fair cross-section of the community.
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that [i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed. Interpreting this constitutional provision, the United States Supreme Court has held that the American concept of the jury trial contemplates a jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community and 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. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 527-28, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975). The Court concluded that 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. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. at 538, 95 S.Ct. 692. However, the Court expressly declared that defendants are not entitled to a jury of any particular composition because the fair cross-section requirement does not impose a requirement that the jury actually chosen mirror the community or reflect the various distinctive groups in the population. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. at 538, 95 S.Ct. 692; 3 David S. Rudstein et al., Criminal Constitutional Law § 14.07[3], at 14-67 (2009) (Rudstein, Criminal Constitutional Law ). For a defendant to establish a prima facie case of a violation of the fair cross-section requirement, he or she must show (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. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 364, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). Accordingly, a defendant raising a cross section objection can prevail without showing purposeful discrimination. 6 LaFave, Criminal Procedure § 22.2(d), at 59. If the defendant establishes a prima facie case of a fair cross-section violation, the burden shifts to the government to rebut that case. Rudstein, Criminal Constitutional Law § 14.07[3], at 14-78.
McMinn County excluded a disproportionate number of persons 75 years of age or older when it decided not to consider the first two thousand names on its driver's license list. While Mr. Hester concedes, as he must, that he has found no authority identifying old age or youth as a `distinctive group' for cross-section analysis purposes, he requests this Court to be more exacting in its review because McMinn County's jury selection formula was designed purposefully to exclude these older citizens. We conclude that the exclusion of persons age 75 or older in the present case is not of constitutional import for purposes of the fair cross-section requirement. The record supports Mr. Hester's assertion that McMinn County was purposefully excluding older residents. The county's decision to skip the first two thousand names on the list was motivated by its desire to prevent the jury venires from being overwhelmingly or exclusively composed of senior citizens. Not all purposeful exclusion of individuals sharing a common trait is inherently unconstitutional or improper [32] nor is purposeful exclusion necessary to establish a violation of the fair cross-section requirement. However, we agree with Mr. Hester that evidence of purposeful exclusion of any group should prompt the courts to more closely inspect challenged jury selection procedures to make sure that they did not deprive a defendant of a jury composed of a fair cross-section of the community through unconstitutional systematic exclusion. [33] In general, courts have concluded that under-representation or even total exclusion of certain age groups does not constitute a violation of the fair cross-section requirement because age categories are not considered to constitute a distinctive group in the community. Accordingly, exclusion on this basis fails to satisfy the first prong of the fair cross-section test. See State v. Blunt, 708 S.W.2d 415, 417-18 (Tenn.Crim.App.1985); see, e.g., Silagy v. Peters, 905 F.2d 986, 1010-11 (7th Cir. 1990); Stewart v. Carroll, 214 Ariz. 480, 154 P.3d 382, 385-86 (Ariz.Ct.App.2007); Ewing v. State, 719 N.E.2d 1221, 1226 (Ind.1999); Commonwealth v. Evans, 438 Mass. 142, 778 N.E.2d 885, 893 (2002). In endeavoring to ascertain what constitutes a constitutionally distinctive group in the community for purposes of the fair cross-section requirement, the United States Supreme Court has observed that [c]ommunities differ at different times and places. What is a fair cross section at one time or place is not necessarily a fair cross section at another time or a different place. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. at 537, 95 S.Ct. 692. [34] The Supreme Court, however, has declined to offer a definition of what constitutes a constitutionally significant distinctive group in the community for purposes of the fair cross-section requirement, and so the concept remains extremely elusive. James Gobert, Jury Selection: The Law, Art and Science of Selecting a Jury § 6:16 (2009) (hereinafter Gobert, Jury Selection ). In Thiel v. Southern Pacific Co., 328 U.S. at 220, 66 S.Ct. 984, the Supreme Court viewed the concept in terms of economic, social, religious, racial, political and geographical groups of the community. Subsequently, the Court appeared to more closely associate the concept with national origin, race, and gender. Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. at 175, 106 S.Ct. 1758. Perhaps the most comprehensive understandings of the concept have been offered by Justice Frankfurter in his dissenting opinion in Thiel v. Southern Pacific Co . and by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. [35] Justice Frankfurter cast the concept in terms of holding a different social outlook, having a different sense of justice, and maintaining a different conception of a juror's responsibility. Thiel v. Southern Pac. Co., 328 U.S. at 230, 66 S.Ct. 984 (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has defined the concept in terms of three critical components: (1) that the group is defined and limited by some factor (i.e., that the group has a definite composition such as by race or sex); (2) that a common thread or basic similarity in attitude, ideas, or experience runs through the group; and (3) that there is a community of interest among members of the group such that the group's interests cannot be adequately represented if the group is excluded from the jury selection process. Willis v. Zant, 720 F.2d 1212, 1216 (11th Cir.1983). While an age-based exclusion could, in theory, constitute the exclusion of a constitutionally distinctive group in the community, [36] we find no support in this record for the conclusion that the disproportionate exclusion of persons over the age of 75 from McMinn County juries constituted the exclusion of a distinctive group in that community. The record in this case reflects that the jury venires include a proportionate number of persons between the ages of 60 and 74. Simply stated, there is no evidence to support the conclusion that the differences between persons aged 60 to 74 and those over the age of 75 is substantial in terms of attitude, ideas, or experience or that interests of the excluded group are left unrepresented. Additionally, there is no evidence that persons falling on opposite sides of this age divide are significantly different in their social outlook, their sense of justice, or their concept of a juror's responsibility. Accordingly, we find no basis for concluding that McMinn County's purposeful exclusion from the jury venire of persons over the age of 75 constituted the exclusion of a constitutionally significant distinctive group within the community for purposes of the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a jury composed of a fair cross-section of the community.
We need not tarry long on whether African-Americans and Hispanics are distinctive groups in the community for the purpose of the fair cross-section requirement. Today, it is beyond reasoned debate that they are. [37] Rather, our task is to determine whether Mr. Hester has met the second and third prongs of the fair cross-section requirement. Thus, we must determine whether Mr. Hester has demonstrated that the representation of either Hispanics or African-Americans in venires from which juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community and whether the underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. at 364, 99 S.Ct. 664. The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that Mr. Hester failed to show that representation of Hispanics and African-Americans in the jury venire met the second prong of the fair cross-section requirement. It reasoned as follows: According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau Data of record, the makeup of McMinn County was 92.7% white, 4.5% black, and 1.8% Hispanic. The venire from which the defendant's jury was selected in December 2003 was 96.0% white, 3.4% black, and 0% Hispanic. Stated differently, of the 175 prospective jurors, six were black, none were Hispanic, one was other, and the rest were white. In our view, the slight disparity between the numbers of prospective African American and Hispanic jurors in the venire in relation to their numbers in the community is statistically and legally insignificant, varying from just over one percent with respect to African Americans and just under two percent with respect to Hispanics. As this court has observed, [n]either the jury roll nor the venire panel need be a perfect mirror of the community or accurately reflect the proportionate strength of every identifiable group in the community. On the record presented, we conclude that the defendant has failed to establish the second prong of the applicable test under Duren by showing that either African Americans or Hispanics were not fairly or reasonably represented in relation to their number in the community. State v. Hester, 2009 WL 275760, at -14 (citation omitted). The approach utilized by the Court of Criminal Appeals assessed the absolute disparity between African-Americans and Hispanics in the jury venire and the percentages of each group in the population as recorded in the census for McMinn County. The absolute disparity is calculated by subtracting the percentage of the distinctive group on the venire from the percentage in the population. Thus, if a distinctive group is 12% of the population and 7% on the venire, the absolute disparity is 5%. 4 Joel Androphy, White Collar Crime § 41:46 (2d ed.2010). Absolute disparity measures the difference between the underrepresented group's percentage in the jury-eligible population and the group's percentage in the actual jury venire. People v. Anderson, 25 Cal.4th 543, 106 Cal.Rptr.2d 575, 22 P.3d 347, 361 n. 6 (2001). Mr. Hester insists that the Court of Criminal Appeals should have considered comparative disparity of both Hispanics and African-Americans in the jury venire rather than absolute disparity. To determine comparative disparity, the absolute disparity figure is divided by the percentage of minority group members in the population. Sara Sun Beale et al., Grand Jury Law and Practice § 3:18 (2d ed.2009). Comparative disparity provides an assessment of the percentage by which the number of group members in the actual venire falls short of the number of group members one would expect from the overall `eligible population' figures. People v. Anderson, 106 Cal.Rptr.2d 575, 22 P.3d at 361 n. 6. In its recent decision in Berghuis v. Smith, 559 U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1382, 176 L.Ed.2d 249 (2010), the United States Supreme Court was confronted with issues related to the proper way to determine whether small minority groups are fairly and reasonably represented in accordance with the second prong of the fair cross-section requirement. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had concluded that the primary and essential way to address this issue is to analyze the comparative disparity of the small minority population on the jury venire. The Supreme Court disagreed and concluded that there was no clearly established law establishing the superiority of comparative disparity analysis for assessing the under-representation of small minority groups. See Berghuis v. Smith, 559 U.S. at ___, 130 S.Ct. at 1392-96. To the contrary, the Supreme Court observed that both the absolute and comparative disparity tests suffer from imperfections and are subject to being misleading in addressing small minority populations. Berghuis v. Smith, 559 U.S. at ___, 130 S.Ct. at 1393. Rather than fully embracing, as Mr. Hester recommends, the comparative disparity approach for small minority populations, we find much to agree with in the approach adopted by the Michigan Supreme Court and referenced in Berghuis v. Smith . The Michigan Supreme Court observed that [w]e thus consider all these approaches to measuring whether representation was fair and reasonable, and conclude that no individual method should be used exclusive of the others. Accordingly, we adopt a case-by-case approach. Provided that the parties proffer sufficient evidence, courts should consider the results of all the tests in determining whether representation was fair and reasonable. People v. Smith, 463 Mich. 199, 615 N.W.2d 1, 3 (2000). [38] We are not persuaded that Mr. Hester has made out a prima facie case that the number of African-Americans included on McMinn County's jury venires is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. at 364, 99 S.Ct. 664. The absolute disparity between the census figures and the representation of African-Americans on the jury venire from which Mr. Hester's jury was selected was only 1.1%, and the comparative disparity was only 24.4%. Out of the venire of 175 persons, it could be anticipated that approximately eight of the potential jurors would be African-American. The actual number was six. Given the relatively small size of the African-American community in McMinn County, we conclude that Mr. Hester has failed to make a prima facie showing that African-Americans were not fairly or reasonably represented for purposes of the fair cross-section requirement in relation to the number of African-Americans in the McMinn County community. See, e.g., United States v. Chanthadara, 230 F.3d 1237, 1257 (10th Cir.2000); United States v. Weaver, 267 F.3d 231, 241-44 (3d Cir. 2001); People v. Burgener, 29 Cal.4th 833, 129 Cal.Rptr.2d 747, 62 P.3d 1, 22-23 (2003). Similarly, we are not persuaded that Mr. Hester has made out a prima facie case that the under-representation of Hispanics on the jury venire was due to the systematic exclusion of that group from the jury selection process. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. at 364, 99 S.Ct. 664. While Mr. Hester started to lay an evidentiary foundation for his claim that McMinn County, albeit inadvertently, was systematically excluding Hispanics from its jury venires, he ultimately failed to carry his burden. Mr. Hester began to lay an evidentiary foundation for his systematic exclusion of Hispanics claim by presenting evidence that a significant concentration of Hispanics possess higher driver's license numbers and that the process used to select the June 2003 jury venire never considered a significant number of persons with higher driver's license numbers. However, he fell short by failing to present evidence relating to (1) the increment used to select the December 2, 2003 venire, (2) the impact of that increment on the percentage of Hispanics whose driver's license numbers could have been included in the venire, and (3) how the increment was determined. [39] The record shows the increment used to draw names from the driver's license list changes when a new venire is selected. These changes have a significant effect on the drawing of names from the list. For example, when the increment is increased, a larger percentage of the persons on the master list will be considered for jury service. Conversely, when the increment is decreased, a smaller percentage of persons on the master list will be considered. Thus, assuming that McMinn County's Hispanic population generally is at the end of the list because Hispanics disproportionately have higher driver's license numbers, increasing the increment will diminish the possibility that Hispanics will be excluded from consideration. Alternatively, decreasing the increment will have a tendency to increase the possibility that Hispanics will not be considered for jury service. Mr. Hester presented no evidence regarding the process that was used to determine the increment for selecting the December 2, 2003 venire. Thus, the record does not reveal the increment that was used by the software to select the persons who were called for jury duty on December 2, 2003. Without this evidence, the courts can only speculate about how McMinn County's use of a varying increment affected the representation of Hispanics on the county's jury venires. The burden to present evidence of a systematic under-representation of a distinct group within the community fell squarely on Mr. Hester. He has failed to carry his burden.