Ethnicity and the Jury System

Authors

Ashton Wesley Welch

Orginal Publication Date

2001

Journal Title

Ethnic Studies Review

Volume

24

Issue

esr/vol24/iss1

First Page

104

Last Page

122

Comments

Analytical Traditions

Abstract

Discrimination in the jury system has been a matter of constitutional and ethical concern at least since the mid-nineteenth century. Ethnic and linguistic minorities have been disadvantaged by the use of the peremptory challenge, statutory requirements, and administrative practices which compromised the Sixth Amendment provision for a jury of one's peers with its implication for juror impartiality. Attacks on the discriminatory applications of those systems and practices resulted in reduction, as gradual as it was, of the exclusionary practices. Batson vs Kentucky made the Sixth Amendment guarantee more reachable for ethnic and linguistic minorities.

Rights

​Copyright ©ESR, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 2001