Duren v. Missouri

In Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U. S. 522 (1975), this Court held that systematic exclusion of women during the jury-selection process, resulting in jury pools not “reasonably *359representative” of the community, denies a criminal defendant his right, under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, to a petit jury selected from a fair cross section of the community.1 Under the system invalidated in Taylor, a woman could not serve on a jury unless she filed a written declaration of her willingness to do so.2 As a result, although 53% of the persons eligible for jury service were women, less than 1% of the…