Opinion ID: 1830727
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: siphoningg

Text: Defendant primarily argues that the selection of district court jurors before circuit court jurors systematically excluded black jurors from the circuit court pool. By first allocating jurors for district courts in the city of Grand Rapids, with its 18.5 percent black population, and other district courts in Kent County, he contends that most of the available black jurors were siphoned away from the circuit court jury pools. He compares his case to People v. Hubbard, supra, in which prospective jurors were sent a questionnaire for either district court only or circuit court only depending on their residence. In that case, the defendant showed that this preselection for district court was directing seventy-five percent of black prospective jurors in the county to district court, with only the remaining twenty-five percent available for circuit court. The Court of Appeals held this to be a systematic exclusion. Id. at 480-482, 552 N.W.2d 493. Although the instant case and Hubbard have facial similarities, defendant has not shown the effect that similarity had on his case. In Hubbard, testimony established that seventy-five percent of jury-eligible black adults were excluded from circuit court jury service because of the allocation system. Here, however, defendant has not shown how the alleged siphoning of black jurors to district court affected circuit court juries. No evidence has shown that district court juries contained more, fewer, or a number approximately equal to the number of minority jurors appearing in circuit court. Defendant has the burden of proof on this issue, but has left me to my own speculation. [15] He thus has not carried his burden of proof. By holding that defendant has not carried his burden on this issue, I do not condone the practice of selecting district court jurors before circuit court jurors. Such a system was shown to work a constitutional violation in Hubbard. Here, though, defendant has simply failed to show that Kent County's former practice effected a constitutional violation.