Opinion ID: 78300
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion to Strike Jury Venire

Text: The Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant the right to be indicted and tried by juries drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. United States v. Grisham, 63 F.3d 1074, 1078 (11th Cir.1995). A defendant establishes a prima facie violation of the fair-cross-section requirement by showing that: (1) the allegedly excluded group is a `distinctive' group in the community; (2) the representation of this group in the venire from which the jury was selected was not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3) the under-representation was due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process. Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 364, 99 S.Ct. 664, 668, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). Clarke contends that while African-Americans made up just under eight percent of the jury panel, the 2000 census as reported by the University of Alabama showed that African-Americans represented approximately twenty-one percent of the population of the Northern District of Alabama. See Appellant's Brief at 22. While we have held that the second element is not satisfied where the absolute disparity between the percentage of the distinctive group among the population eligible for jury service and the percentage of the distinctive group on the jury panel is ten percent or less, see Grisham, 63 F.3d at 1074, Clarke's challenge to the jury selection process is nevertheless unavailing because he has presented no evidence showing that the under-representation in this case was due to systematic exclusion of African-Americans. Accordingly, Clarke has failed to establish that the jury selection process violated the Sixth Amendment. See United States v. Pepe, 747 F.2d 632, 649 (11th Cir.1984) (failure to establish any element of prima facie case is fatal to Sixth Amendment challenge to jury selection process).