Ronnie Atwell v. Frank C. Blackburn, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary

The majority’s opinion today wrongly applies the burden of proof standards set out in Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979), for establishing a prima facie case of unconstitutional deprivation of a grand jury constituted from a fair cross-section of the community. In particular, the court would require defendant to demonstrate underrepresentation, notwithstanding direct proof of intentional, systematic exclusion of an identifiable group. Ante at 505-06. Because the appropriate benchmark for analysis is Thiel v. Southern Pacific Co., 328 U.S. *509217, 66 S.Ct.…