Court Opinion

ID: 9463177
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:59:54.207928+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:57.879169
License: Public Domain

HUNTER, Circuit Judge
(concurring and dissenting in part):
I concur with Judge Van Dusen. Because the jury selection issue as I understand it has not been presented, I feel it worthwhile to describe this difficult problem.
The sixth amendment guarantees a criminal defendant the right to a trial by a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community.1 The difficulty is in defining “community.” In this case, the relevant “community” may be coextensive with New Jersey, Hudson County, Burlington County, or some as yet unformulated area. I agree with Judge Adams that every town in that “community” need not be represented, but I think it essential to define the perimeter of the “community” first.
*489The state practice of drawing a jury only from the county in which the court sits raises serious constitutional issues. That selection practice, when combined with the ability to choose the trial county, results in the evisceration of any constitutional cross-section requirement. Once a narrow “community” is chosen, a panel that represents that community perfectly may nonetheless violate the sixth amendment, in my view.
In light of the actual disposition of the case, it is unnecessary at this time to decide the issue as I have raised it. The state court will have the opportunity to grapple with this difficult issue.

. The sixth amendment itself refers only to an “impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed,” but as interpreted by the Supreme Court this includes the requirement that the jury be drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. See, e. g., Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 526-31, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1974).