Court Opinion

ID: 9861206
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:48:59.417596+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:27:35.529395
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE WHITE, specially concurring: This is still another of an increasing number of cases arising in this and other jurisdictions presenting the question of whether the State’s systematic use of peremptory challenges to effectively exclude nonwhite jurors solely because of their race violates a defendant’s sixth amendment right to an impartial jury drawn from a cross section of the community. The majority rely on Swain v. Alabama (1965), 380 U.S. 202, 13 L. Ed. 2d 759, 85 S. Ct. 824, and its Illinois progeny, to reject defendant’s claim that his constitutional rights were violated in this case. On May 31, 1983, the question regarding the State’s use of peremptory challenge was again before the United States Supreme Court in petitions for writs of certiorari (82 — 1381, McCray v. New York; 82 — 5840, Miller v. Illinois; 82 — 5910, Perry v. Louisiana). (51 U.S.L.W. 3855.) Three justices joined in an opinion supporting denial of the petitions. Two dissented. Significantly, however, none of the five justices relied upon Swain, decided in 1965 by a divided court, as now being dispositive of the question. Justice Marshall, with whom Justice Brennan joined in dissenting, wrote, “I would grant certiorari to reexamine the standard set forth in Swain.” (51 U.S.L.W. 3855, 3856.) In the majority opinion, Justice Stevens wrote: “My vote to deny certiorari in these cases does not reflect disagreement with Justice Marshall’s appraisal of the importance of the underlying issue — whether the Constitution prohibits the use of peremptory challenges to exclude members of a particular group from the jury, on the prosecutor’s assumption that they will be biased in favor of other members of the same group. I believe that further consideration of the substantive and procedural ramifications of the problem by other courts will enable us to deal with the issue more wisely at a later date.” (51 U.S.L.W. 3855.) Thus, none of the United States Supreme Court justices facing this question found answers in unwaivering adherence to Swain. Indeed,. further consideration of the Swain issue by other courts was invited. People v. Payne (1982), 106 Ill. App. 3d 1034, 436 N.E.2d 1046, is the first Illinois case in which the court found that the State’s use of peremptory challenges had deprived the defendant of a fair trial under the sixth amendment. That case is still pending on appeal in the Illinois Supreme Court, indicating that this subject is still receiving in this State the reexamination McCray invited. This opinion is written to contribute to that reexamination. Generally, it can be said that any device or practice used by the State which has, as its purpose and effect, systematically requiring that all nonwhites accused of crime in Cook County be tried by all white or almost all white juries, violates the sixth amendment right to a fair trial before an impartial jury drawn from a cross section of the community. (See Taylor v. Louisiana (1975), 419 U.S. 522, 42 L. Ed. 2d 690, 95 S. Ct. 692.) This is clearly true when the State’s action on the basis of race takes place in the selection of veniremen. (See Peters v. Kiff (1972), 407 U.S. 493, 33 L. Ed. 2d 83, 92 S. Ct. 2163; Sims v. Georgia (1967), 389 U.S. 404, 19 L. Ed. 2d 634, 88 S. Ct. 523; Jones v. Georgia (1967), 389 U.S. 24, 19 L. Ed. 2d 25, 88 S. Ct. 4; Whitus v. Georgia (1967), 385 U.S. 545, 17 L. Ed. 2d 599, 87 S. Ct. 643; Coleman v. Alabama (1964), 377 U.S. 129, 12 L. Ed. 2d 190, 84 S. Ct. 1152; Avery v. Georgia (1953), 345 U.S. 559, 97 L. Ed. 1244, 73 S. Ct. 891; Patton v. Mississippi (1947), 332 U.S. 463, 92 L. Ed. 76, 68 S. Ct. 184; Hale v. Kentucky (1938), 303 U.S. 613, 82 L. Ed. 1050, 58 S. Ct. 753; Hollins v. Oklahoma (1935), 295 U.S. 394, 79 L. Ed. 1500, 55 S. Ct. 784; Norris v. Alabama (1935), 294 U.S. 587, 79 L. Ed. 1074, 55 S. Ct. 579; Martin v. Texas (1906), 200 U.S. 316, 50 L. Ed. 497, 26 S. Ct. 338; Neal v. Delaware (1881), 103 U.S. 370, 26 L. Ed. 567; Strauder v. West Virginia (1880), 100 U.S. 303, 25 L. Ed. 664.) Does Swain require the application of a different rule to the selection of the jury members? In my view Swain does not require the elevation of section 115 — 4(e) of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 38, par. 115 — 4(e)), relating to peremptory challenges, to a position paramount to the fair trial provisions of the sixth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. In Swain the court said: “[W]hen the prosecutor in a county, in case after case, whatever the circumstances, whatever the crime and whoever the defendant or the victim may be, is responsible for the removal of Negroes who have been selected as qualified jurors by the jury commissioners and who have survived challenges for cause, with the result that no Negroes ever serve on petit juries, the Fourteenth Amendment claim takes on added significance. Cf. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356. In these circumstances, giving even the widest leeway to the operation of irrational but trial-related suspicions and antagonisms, it would appear that the purposes of the peremptory challenge are being perverted. If the State has not seen fit to leave a single Negro on any jury in a criminal case, the presumption protecting the prosecutor may well be overcome. Such proof might support a reasonable inference that Negroes are excluded from juries for reasons wholly unrelated to the outcome of the particular case on trial and that the peremptory system is being used to deny the Negro the same right and opportunity to participate in the administration of justice enjoyed by the white population. These ends the peremptory challenge is not designed to facilitate or justify.” 380 U.S. 202, 223-24, 13 L. Ed. 2d 759, 774, 85 S. Ct. 824, 837-38. The question posed by this appeal is does the instant case meet this Swain test: Did the State’s systematic striking of Negroes in the selection of the petit jury raise a prima facie case of constitutional violation? It is the jury that sits in the box and hears the case, not the jury pool, that is the essential element of a fair trial. If the State uses the peremptory system to deny nonwhites the same right and opportunity to sit on juries enjoyed by whites, this would thwart efforts for a fair trial no matter how unbiased the jury pool selection and other pretrial procedures are. The State’s use of peremptory challenges here, and consequently the selection of jurors, was on the basis of race. Members of a venire are not required to announce their race, religion or ethnic origin. This makes it difficult to record a prosecutor’s racially motivated strategies. However, here defense counsel, through patient, polite, persistence, made and preserved the record of the State’s use of nine of its 10 peremptory challenges against nonwhite jurors. As Justice Marshall wrote in McCray, "When a prosecutor uses several peremptory challenges to exclude every potential Negro juror, there is strong circumstantial evidence that the exclusions are racially motivated and therefore in violation of the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right.” 51 U.S.L.W. 3855, 3856. Additionally, Swain and the cases which followed suggest that the systematic exclusion of nonwhites by peremptory challenges in case after case is necessary to raise a constitutional issue. Regarding this Swain requirement, Justice Marshall in McCray wrote, “Since every defendant is entitled to equal protection of the laws and should therefore be free from invidious discrimination of state officials, it is difficult to understand why several must suffer discrimination because of the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges before any defendant can object.” (51 U.S.L.W. 3855, 3855-56.) However, in the context of the instant case, this Swain requirement need not bar defendant from asserting his sixth amendment right. This court and the circuit court of Cook County can take judicial notice of the number of cases in that court in which arguments similar to those of this defendant have been raised. State v. Brown (La. 1979), 371 So. 2d 751. In People v. Gosberry (1982), 109 Ill. App. 3d 674, 440 N.E.2d 954, this court listed 27 cases in which the issue of the use of peremptory challenges to exclude nonwhites from a jury in a criminal case was raised on appeal. The Gosberry court observed that all but four of these cases were tried in Cook County. (109 Ill. App. 3d 674, 682-83.) Following Gosberry, there have been at least nine additional cases which have addressed this issue. They are: People v. Williams (1983), 97 Ill. 2d 252; People v. Davis (1983), 95 Ill. 2d 1, 447 N.E.2d 353; People v. Logan (1983), 117 Ill. App. 3d 753; People v. Withers (1983), 115 Ill. App. 3d 1077; People v. Jones (1983), 114 Ill. App. 3d 576; People v. Gilliard (1983), 112 Ill. App. 3d 799, 445 N.E.2d 1293; People v. Osborn (1983), 111 Ill. App. 3d 1078, 444 N.E.2d 1158; People v. Newsome (1982), 110 Ill. App. 3d 1043, 443 N.E.2d 634; and People v. Turner (1982), 110 Ill. App. 3d 519, 442 N.E.2d 637. All but two of these cases were tried in Cook County. The record here shows that the State used peremptory challenges, with one exception, to bar blacks and hispanics from the jury. The number of criminal cases arising from Cook County where similar conduct is charged indicates that this was not an isolated case, but that indeed the same use of peremptory challenges by the State occurs in case after case. This meets the Swain test. I would not, as the majority opinion does, place the State’s peremptory challenge beyond realistic scrutiny and convert the challenge from a device for protecting defendants into a tool for restricting the availability of a fair trial before an impartial jury. The majority correctly cites People v. Williams as authority for this position, and although it goes contrary to all I have observed above, I am compelled by stare decisis to concur.