Opinion ID: 1254804
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Use only of voter registration lists deprives defendant of his right to a jury drawn from a representative cross-section of the community.

Text: Prior to jury selection defendant moved to quash the jury venire on the ground that use of the voter registration list as the sole source for the jury pool in Los Angeles County deprived defendant of his right to a trial by an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and by article I, section 16 of the California Constitution. Defendant claims that the use of the voter registration list as the sole source for the pool of jurors leads to the systematic exclusion and significant underrepresentation of Blacks and Hispanics, because of the low percentage of those eligible who register coupled with the proportionally lower registration rate of minorities compared to the White population. Respondent urges this court to reject defendant's claim because his statistical showing was based on total population figures rather than more refined data showing the ethnic breakdown of those eligible to serve as jurors.