JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Defense attorneys in two death penalty cases are challenging what they say is a discriminatory jury selection process in Duval County.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tried to bring in leaders from Jacksonville’s Black community to help their case. Those pastors, community leaders and activists agree jury proceedings in the criminal justice system have not been fair to the Black community.
The ACLU said it has the studies to prove it, but state prosecutors believe this is more of an issue to be addressed in legislation or at the ballot box, not in court.
The cases under a microscope include two pending capital re-sentencing trials in Duval County: Luther Douglas and Donald Banks.
Both men were convicted of murders and sentenced to death.
Those sentences were later thrown out for being unconstitutional. On Friday, their cases returned to court and News4JAX watched.
The ACLU is challenging the jury selection process saying it removes jurors who don’t want to impose the death penalty and disproportionality removes Black jurors from service.
“I think we all need to grapple with the fact that we still have racial discrimination in our communal justice system. We are all trying to eradicate it. But we’re not there yet. We can’t pretend like it’s gone. It’s not gone and when people have distrust in the system based on that racial discrimination, and then the state takes advantage of that and excludes them from the process, and excludes them even though there’s a raw punishment those jurors can select, that violates the eighth amendment death sentence infused with racial consideration. It’s not an impartial jury, and we’ve heard, and that only our Black jurors are excluded and that affects deliberation. We heard that from Professor (inaudible), but also the white jurors who are included are more likely to hold racist views,” said Brian Stull, Deputy Director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project.
A declaration from a professor showed in the 12 capital cases in Duval County in 2010, Black jurors were twice as likely to be removed as white jurors.
Stull mentions how local activists and community groups have done studies showing distrust in the criminal justice system goes back to legal lynchings.
The judge urged the defense to stick to legal issues and acknowledged that anecdotal statements are tragic but don’t move the court in any direction.
The state said the defense wouldn’t want a jury of people who only consider death and neither do they.
“People who are opposed to the death penalty personally may be a preemptory strike, but they are not a cause challenge. If they say I can, although personally against that law, can follow the law. The last paragraph of the court reads to jurors, and I know the court is aware of, is that no juror has a right to violate the rules we all share. This is a fundamental principle of our justice system, and this side of the courtroom is arguing that because a person has more pigmentation in their skin that they should not have to follow that. That they are allowed to ignore the law,” said prosecutor Alan Mizrahi.
Mizrahi said jurors are charged with considering punishments and people of any race have feelings about the death penalty.
Stull said the opposition to the death penalty is greater today and the judge pointed out how white jurors will be excluded like anyone else if they can’t follow the rules.
On Friday, Florida lawmakers passed a bill to remove unanimous jury requirements for the death penalty.
Both Douglas and Banks’ cases have been passed to May 17 where the judge will make a ruling.