Opinion ID: 2404710
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the challenge to the constitutional validity of the grand jury by reason of exemptions granted to students and professors at colleges and universities within the state

Text: Prior to trial defendant moved to dismiss the indictment that had been brought against him on the ground of a challenge to the constitutionality of the composition of the grand jury. He argued that the exemption provided to students and professors at colleges and universities in this state violated his due-process right to a grand jury drawn from a representative cross section of the community. In support of this contention, evidence was introduced which had been elicited in another criminal case, State v. Brown, C.A. No. P2/80-174, which had been heard before the same trial justice. In that case an investigator for the Public Defender's office testified that he had examined the academic exemptions exercised during the 1979-80 period and determined that four persons had exercised such exemptions. More significantly, these individuals were all who would have been eligible for that exemption during the relevant period. We are thus confronted with the question of whether an exemption accorded to members of a cognizable class may render the composition of a grand jury constitutionally infirm by reason of a failure to comply with the fair cross-section requirement laid down by the Supreme Court of the United States in Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979), and Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975), and applied by this court in State v. Jenison, R.I., 405 A.2d 3 (1979). In Taylor the Supreme Court of the United States held that a jury-selection system that provided that a woman should not be selected for jury service unless she had previously filed a written declaration of her desire to be subject to jury service was constitutionally invalid because of its failure to meet the fair-cross-section requirement. In that case the selection scheme resulted in juries which consisted of approximately 10 percent women, even though 53 percent of the persons eligible for jury services in the parishes under consideration were female. In commenting upon the effect of this decision, Mr. Justice White observed: The States are free to grant exemptions from jury service to individuals in case of special hardship or incapacity and to those engaged in particular occupations the uninterrupted performance of which is critical to the community's welfare.    It would not appear that such exemptions would pose substantial threats that the remaining pool of jurors would not be representative of the community. A system excluding all women, however, is a wholly different matter. It is untenable to suggest these days that it would be a special hardship for each and every woman to perform jury service or that society cannot spare any women from their present duties. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. at 534-35, 95 S. Ct. at 700, 42 L. Ed. 2d at 700-01. In the later case of Duren v. Missouri, supra , the Court also invalidated a jury-selection system that provided an automatic exemption from jury service for any woman requesting not to serve. This system resulted in jury venires that were on average less than 15 percent female, although 54 percent of the adult inhabitants of the relevant county were women. In holding this opt-out system as invalid as the opt-in mechanism of Taylor, the Supreme Court through Mr. Justice White still maintained that a state had the right to provide reasonable exemptions in furtherance of a significant state interest. The Court also recognized that most occupational and other reasonable exemptions may inevitably involve some degree of overinclusiveness or underinclusiveness   . Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. at 370, 99 S. Ct. at 671, 58 L. Ed. 2d at 590. This court in Jenison, supra, similarly recognized that members of a cognizable class, such as academics, might be exempted (as opposed to being excluded) from jury service. In commenting upon the lack of state interest in the total and arbitrary exclusion of academics from jury service, this court noted: Moreover, the appropriate way to avoid interfering with the scholarly pursuits of professor and student alike is by exempting, not excluding, them from service in appropriate cases. The total and arbitrary exclusion of the university and college academic community from the grand-jury selection process is an impermissible violation of the due-process right of the criminal defendant to be indicted by an impartial grand jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. 405 A.2d at 10. [2] During the period applicable to this case, G.L. 1956 (1969 Reenactment) § 9-9-3, as amended by P.L. 1974, ch. 116, § 1 provided exemption not only for professors, tutors, and students of recognized universities and colleges but also, inter alia, for justices of the state and United States courts, clerks of courts, practicing attorneys-at-law, sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, marshals, deputy marshals, members of any paid police force of the state or of any city or town, members of any paid fire department of any city or town, priests, ministers, rabbis, and others holding ecclesiastical office in religious organizations, as well as members of Congress from the State of Rhode Island, the general officers of the state and the members and officers of the General Assembly during their tenure of office irrespective of whether the General Assembly is in session or not. Thus, the Rhode Island statute exempted many persons whose uninterrupted performance of their respective occupations was deemed important to the community's welfare. The court in Jenison did not condemn such exemptions but did condemn the entire exclusion of an identifiable and cognizable class playing a major role in the community, without a rational reason therefor   . 405 A.2d at 8. As the Supreme Court of the United States suggested in Taylor v. Louisiana : We impose no requirement that petit juries actually chosen must mirror the community and reflect the various distinctive groups in the population. Defendants are not entitled to a jury of any particular composition [citations omitted] but 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. 419 U.S. at 538, 95 S.Ct. at 702, 42 L.Ed.2d at 703. In confronting a similar scheme of exemption for members of certain occupations for federal juries in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Chief Judge Wyzansky observed: The Plan is not unconstitutional on the ground that it provides that certain professional classes shall be excused from jury duty. The excuses reflect a rational accommodation between the community's need for jurors and its need for uninterrupted religious, medical, teaching and like services. If persons of professional background be regarded as a cognizable group, that group is adequately represented by persons from disciplines which are not made a basis for excuse from jury duty. In any event, the discrimination is not `purposeful', in the sense that it is designed to preclude a fair cross-section. United States v. Arnett, 342 F. Supp. 1255, 1261 (D.Mass. 1970). [3] Although the Legislature has since repealed the exemption previously granted to academics, [4] such exemptions are still accorded to a large number of members of occupations and professions whose uninterrupted performance is considered to be of significant interest to the state. We do not believe that the exemption granted to professors and students at colleges or the other exemptions granted to members of specific occupations violate the cross-section requirements set forth in Taylor, Duren, or Jenison. The state, in providing exemptions for members of professions and occupations in which it has a significant interest will always be somewhat under  or overinclusive. No grand jury or petit jury will ever completely mirror the community. We are of the opinion that the exemptions provided from jury service by the Rhode Island Legislature at the time relevant to this indictment were reasonable and did not violate the cross-section requirements imposed by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. For the reasons stated, the appeal of the defendant is denied and dismissed, the judgment of conviction is affirmed, and the papers in the case may be remanded to the Superior Court.