Opinion ID: 342459
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Denial of a Fair Cross Section

Text: 39 Appellant here contends that the use of volunteer jurors violated his due process rights. We cannot agree. 40 The due process clause does not itself guarantee a defendant a randomly selected jury, but simply a jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community. A claim of denial of this due process right requires a showing that the jury selection process tended to exclude or underrepresent some discernable class of persons and consequently to defeat a fair possibility for obtaining a truly representative cross section. See United States v. DeAlba-Conrado, supra. 41 In a slightly different procedural context, the District of Columbia Circuit has rejected the notion that selecting jurors on the basis of willingness to perform lengthy service automatically results in an unrepresentative body. See United States v. Anderson, 165 U.S.App.D.C. 390, 509 F.2d 312 (1974). 8 As in Anderson, we have nothing before us but the bare allegation that volunteers can never be representative of the community. Absent any indication that the use of volunteers actually operated in a particular case to underrepresent some discernible group of persons and thus to diminish the representative nature of the jurors, we see no reason to disagree with the judgment of the District of Columbia Circuit on the constitutional question. 42 Appellant did not attempt any showing regarding the actual effects of the use of volunteers in terms of the characteristics of persons included or excluded, and we cannot conclude on our own that the selection method distorted the representativeness of the jury. There is no indication that any leeway given the jury clerk in selecting volunteers had any discriminatory impact. 43 None of this is to approve of the selection of volunteer jurors below. As emphasized above, we roundly condemn this practice and expect not to review it again. That the practice violated the Act does not, however, establish a constitutional dereliction. We have simply seen or heard nothing to demonstrate that the practice operated to deprive this appellant of his constitutional right to a jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community.