Article Title
Abstract
An evaluation of four Wake County capital cases from 2014-2018 reveals the disparate effects that the jury selection process had on Black and female potential jurors and especially on Black female potential jurors. The requirement that capital jurors be willing and able to sentence death systematically excluded Blacks and females, with Black females excused for this reason at a rate over three times higher than White males. Black potential jurors not struck for death qualification were disproportionately excluded by prosecutorial peremptory strikes at a rate nearly two times greater than Whites. Final analyses conclude that Black females had significantly lower probabilities of being seated on account of their racial and gender identity. This research highlights how the jury selection process produces White male-dominant juries that undermine defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to a jury of their peers.
Recommended Citation
Quattrocchi, Alessandra
(2022)
"Bias in the Jury Box: The Sociological Determinants of Jury Selection for Capital Cases in North Carolina,"
Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs: Vol. 1:
Iss.
4, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/dujpew/vol1/iss4/4
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