I could cite case law from my days as a law school student, but suffice it to say that a jury of one’s peers is central in criminal justice to determine guilt or innocence.
My grandson was called for jury duty recently. What most impressed him was the age of the majority of the members of the jury pool. My wife was called about a year ago. She, too, commented on the predominance of older white women. She was one of 49, with another group of 49 behind her. Of all those, she saw only two or three Black people.
I was called about 10 years ago and had a similar experience with a telling twist. Ushered into the courtroom, I sat in the second row. In front of me were (you guessed it) two middle-aged white women. We were introduced to the judge and the prosecuting and defense attorneys. “Who is the guy in the brown shirt?” one of the women asked the other. The reply? “That’s the criminal,” she said. That’s the criminal? That says a lot. Imagine a 25-year-old Black defendant whose fate is in the hands of the jury pools described above.
The American Heritage Dictionary describes “peer” as “a person who has equal standing.” That includes “rank, class and age … .”
“That’s the criminal,” she said. And he was white!
Greg Stock
Jeannette