Opinion ID: 1212813
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sixth Amendment Right to an Impartial Jury Drawn from a Fair Cross-Section of the Community

Text: Petitioner asserts that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to a trial by an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. Petitioner alleges that African Americans were underrepresented in the Kent County jury pool and that the particular procedures employed by Kent County in constituting its juror pool systematically produced such underrepresentation. The Michigan Supreme Court's conclusion to the contrary, he argues, constitutes an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as announced in Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975) and Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). For the reasons discussed below, we agree that the Michigan Supreme Court unreasonably applied federal law in rejecting Petitioner's Sixth Amendment challenge to the composition of his venire panel.