A jury of one's peers?

Byline: The Register-Guard

By their very nature, juries are supposed to reflect a cross-section of society. But defense lawyers in a Clackamas County murder case are claiming that a new survey of jury makeup in that area shows that jurors are older, better-educated and wealthier than the county's population as a whole. The survey raises questions that could resonate across the state.

Defense lawyers in the case of murder suspect Leroy "Skip" Bussey are challenging the composition of the jury in their client's case, The Oregonian reported recently. Bussey is accused of killing William Meyers after Meyers told prosecutors about a botched robbery.

Prosecutors contend the county has no control over who shows up for jury duty. The trial judge will decide if the defense claim is valid, but however the judge rules, the case is no doubt headed for the Oregon Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment guarantees that juries in criminal cases will reflect a cross-section of society. The high court overturned a kidnapping conviction of a Louisiana man in 1975 because the state routinely excluded women from juries. And in 1986, the Supreme Court threw out the burglary conviction of an African-American man in Kentucky because the prosecutor in the case challenged the seating of all potential African-American jurors.

The high court's reasoning in those cases is unassailable, as is the time-honored principle that juries - especially those in criminal cases - should represent society at large. Just how representative a jury must be, however, is an open question.

In terms of race, sex and ethnicity, a survey of Clackamas County juries found relatively little statistical difference between juries and the pool of potential jurors from which they were drawn. The differences in age, income, education and occupation, however, were significant.

Presiding judges pick jurors from a "master jury list" prepared yearly by the state court administrator. The master list contains names from a variety of sources such as the state register of licensed drivers, but the primary source is the voter registration records. That's where Clackamas County - and perhaps other counties, including Lane - might encounter problems if the courts find that juries must closely reflect society as a whole.

Some people don't register to vote because they don't want to be candidates for jury duty. Those who do register tend to be older, better educated and richer than those who don't - the very characteristics Bussey's lawyers say might make his jury unrepresentative. In addition, many working people can't afford to take time off from their jobs to serve on a jury - especially if their employers decline to compensate them while they're gone. Jurors thus tend to include more people who are retired or have the flexibility to defer work, family or other obligations.

Whether these imperfections are so serious as to deny a defendant a fair trial seems doubtful. Yet the courts have a strong interest in ensuring that the composition of juries does not drift too far from reflecting the general population. The right to a jury trial rests on the democratic notion that the accused can best be judged by people like them. Unrepresentative juries undermine that strength of the justice system.