Court Opinion

ID: 9452173
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:31:52.903994+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:05.834353
License: Public Domain

GRIFFIN B. BELL, Circuit Judge
(concurring in result only):
I regret that I cannot join in all that is said in the majority opinion. I regret also having to respond to obiter dictum. It would perhaps be better to let the matter pass but for the fact that obiter frequently finds its way into briefs and even into opinions. In this instance the obiter is particularly mischievous. I have reference to the fragmentation of the settled constitutional doctrine that a jury list must reflect a fair cross-section of the community. Glasser v. United States, 1943, 315 U.S. 60, 85-86, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680; Smith v. State [of] Texas, 1940, 311 U.S. 128, 130, 61 S.Ct. 164, 85 L.Ed. 84. The majority in three separate places in the opinion, pp. 14, 16, 23, has made the statement that the Constitution requires not only that the jury list represent a fair cross-section of the community but that the jury selectors must become acquainted with the human resources of the community. It is squarely put as “ * * * the law not only permits, it mandatorily imposes its dual requirement — (1) fair representation . and (2) the duty to know significant, identifiable elements of the community which have been the object of state discrimination.” p. 21, majority opinion.
This fragmentation of the fair cross-section standard into one part consisting of that, and a separate part consisting of what the jury commissioners know and how they have gone about their function results in a new constitutional principle. Henceforth, the jury commissioners will be tried. Their qualifications and conduct will be in issue. Did they perform their duty of knowing all signifi*32cant and identifiable elements of the community? If not, a new trial would be granted on constitutional grounds even though a fair cross-section of the community was represented on the jury list. There could hardly be a case where the jury drawn from a list which reflects a fair cross-section of the community. This new standard would result in a finding of constitutional infirmity in nearly all cases where there is not a perfect cross-section. Anything short of perfect might well demonstrate negligence or inattention on the part of the jury commissioners. Yet, we are told in Swain v. State of Alabama, 1964, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759, that the jury list need not be a perfect mirror of the community or accurately reflect the proportionate strength of every identifiable group.
I pose this problem, simply to point up this remarkable new doctrine. I do not do so with any confidence that my effort will make any great impression on anyone at this time. However, I would like to be recorded as being aware of the fact that this newly discovered constitutional principle will be a fertile new ground for postponing the execution of sentences. The long delays that now inhere in the law1 will today receive, gratis obiter dictum in the majority opinion, a wholly new weapon. In the future careful counsel will not only test the jury list to make certain that it reflects a fair cross-section of the community; they will test the knowledge and activities of the jury commissioners.
The Constitution is a practical instrument; the entire body of law should be. Courts should be alert not to make it impracticable, but this decision will insure impracticability. It will damage the law as a workable institution in that the rights of society will be further delayed if not altogether avoided. The constitutional right involved is to be tried before a jury drawn from a list which reflects a fair cross-section of a community. We are a long ways from vindicating that constitutional right. We would do well to concentrate on it rather than putting more stumbling blocks in its path.
Of course, the jury commissioners must do their duty but the test is in whether the lists represents a fair cross-section; not in what they know or in how they go about their function. Their dereliction will often times account for an unconstitutional result but the Constitution looks to the result. I do not read Avery v. State of Georgia, 1952, 345 U.S. 559, 73 S.Ct. 891, 97 L.Ed.2d 1244; Cassell v. State of Texas, 1950, 339 U.S. 282, 70 S.Ct. 629, 94 L.Ed. 843; Akins v. State of Texas, 1944, 325 U.S. 398, 65 S.Ct. 1276, 89 L.Ed. 1692; or Hill v. State of Texas, 1942, 316 U.S. 400, 62 S.Ct. 1159, 86 L.Ed. 1559, as holding to the contrary. Each turned on a discriminatory result.
I join in the conclusion reached by the majority. I also welcome the passing of Collins v. Walker, 5 Cir., 1964, 329 F.2d 100, because intentional inclusion on the general jury list based on race is a means of converting the constitutional mandate of a fair jury list into a reality. It will always be necessary to include persons based on race or other economic, social, religious, political and geographical groups of a community if the result of the selection system used happens to fall short of the constitutional requirement. It is unfortunate that we replace the unworkable doctrine of Collins v. Walker with a more unworkable one, albeit by obiter dictum.

. As examples of unusual delay see the following cases heard en banc along with the instant case in which the sentence was imposed in 1959: United States of America, ex rel. Labat and Poret v. Bennett, 5 Cir., 365 F.2d 698, No. 22,218, appellants convicted by a jury in 1953 of rape and sentenced to death; Scott v. Walker, 5 Cir., 358 F.2d 561, No. 20,814, appellant sentenced to death in 1958 for rape; United States of America ex rel. Edward Davis v. Davis, Governor, 361 F.2d 770 No. 21,976, sentence of death in 1959 for the murder of a police officer.