Opinion ID: 1223077
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: exclusion of 18 to 21 year old jurors.

Text: Trial in this matter was held in December of 1970 and at that time the Arizona Revised Statutes required that a person to be a registered voter must be 21 years or more of age. § 16-101 A.R.S., as amended, Laws, 1970. Arizona statutes and case law provide that the jury lists shall be selected at random from voter registration lists, § 21-301, subsec. A A.R.S.; State v. Mahoney, 106 Ariz. 297, 475 P.2d 479 (1970), cert. den. 401 U.S. 917, 91 S.Ct. 898, 27 L.Ed.2d 818 (1971); State v. Narten, 99 Ariz. 116, 407 P.2d 81 (1965), cert. den. 384 U.S. 1008, 86 S.Ct. 1985, 16 L.Ed.2d 1021 (1966). The jury commissioner is to be provided with the list not later than 1 January following each biennial election. This list is to be updated each six months. § 21-301, subsec. B A.R.S. In the spring of 1970, the Congress of the United States amended the Voting Rights Act of 1965 providing that citizens 18 years of age or older could be electors. Pub.L. No. 91-285, Title III, § 302, effective 1 January 1971, 84 Stat. 318, 42 U.S.C. 1973 bb-1 (1970). [1] It is asserted by defendant that where a substantial body of individuals, those 18 years old, have been by class excluded from prospective jury duty, a prima facie showing of discrimination has been made. We do not agree. The jury list used in the present case was lawfully selected even though at the time the jury list was compiled 18 year olds were excluded. Periodic (6 month) updating is proper and not prejudicial to those voters, including young adults, who have qualified to vote in the interim. United States v. Kuhn, 441 F.2d 179 (5th Cir.1971). We agree with the North Carolina court in a similar case: The absence from the jury list of the names of persons between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one for the short period of time here complained of is not unreasonable, and does not constitute systematic and arbitrary exclusion of this age group from jury service. State v. Cronell, 281 N.C. 20, 37, 187 S.E.2d 768, 778 (1972). We find no intentional, arbitrary or systematic discrimination against 18 to 21 year olds from serving on the jury at this time and the fact that there was an understandable delay in implementing the requirement that 18 year olds and over be placed on the voter registration list did not invalidate a jury list taken from the voter roles prior to the time voters 18 to 21 were allowed to register. 2. WAS THERE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN THE EXCLUSION OF NEGRO JURORS? It is contended that because the Bureau of Census indicates that there are 3.4% negro citizens in the population of Maricopa County and that in a panel of 125 jurors there were only two negroes instead of four as defendant contends should have been present, there was a prima facie case of racial discrimination and an unrepresentative jury panel in violation of Jones v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 24, 88 S.Ct. 4, 19 L.Ed.2d 25 (1967) and Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545, 87 S.Ct. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599 (1967). We do not agree. A defendant is not entitled to a jury which is composed of, with mathematical precision, the exact proportion of his race as exists in the general population. All that is required is a jury selected by a process where the members of his race are not systematically excluded. Arsad v. Henry, 317 F. Supp. 129 (E.D.N.C. 1970); United States v. Brickey, 426 F.2d 680 (8th Cir.1970). We do not find herein a prima facie case of systematic exclusion of members of the defendant's race in the selection of the jury. See State v. Padilla, 107 Ariz. 134, 483 P.2d 549 (1971); State v. Kabinto, 106 Ariz. 575, 480 P.2d 1 (1971).