Supreme Court will weigh in on ‘O.J. Simpson card’
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4949686.html
Lawyers in criminal and civil cases sometimes profile potential jurors, in some cases relying on consultants to help guide their decisions on which jurors to reject. But since a 1986 Supreme Court ruling, race cannot be a factor in the jury selection process.
Sheri Lynn Johnson, a professor with the Cornell Law School who has filed a legal brief supporting Snyder, says the prosecutor clearly engaged in a “deliberate and premeditated racial purge of the jury … aimed at securing a receptive audience for his racially inflammatory closing argument.”
Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr., contends there were “perfectly legitimate” reasons for striking the black candidates. And, he says, the Supreme Court should show deference to the trial judge who decided the prosecutor was not discriminating.
