State v. Jenkins

In this case, a distraught juror advised the trial court during a break in deliberations that she could not follow the court’s instruc tions on the law and render a verdict based on the evidence free of “passion, prejudice, bias, or sympathy.” The juror explained that she was a “black woman,” that defendant reminded her of her own children, and that she could not “see another young black man going to jail for something really stupid.” For those reasons, she stated that she could not convict defendant under any circumstances. After a lengthy colloquy with the juror, the court declared that she…