Jury Selection

The Supreme Court has said that juries ought to be composed of your peers, but juries are not assigned at random. If you’re black, there’s no guarantee there will be any people of color on your jury because lawyers on the case have a lot of power to pick and choose. They’re technically not supposed to kick people off a jury because of race or gender—but University of South Carolina law professor Ann Eisenberg has evidence that women and African Americans are disproportionately removed from death penalty cases in her state. (Originally aired April 7th, 2020)