United States v. Robinson

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION ON DEFENDANTS’ OBJECTION TO GOVERNMENT’S PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES

NEWMAN, District Judge.

This case poses the troublesome issue of what limits, if any, should be imposed on a federal prosecutor’s use of peremptory jury challenges when such challenges are used frequently to exclude Blacks from serving on criminal juries. The issue arises in the midst of jury selection in a case involving two defendants, one of whom is Black. The jury selection system generally used in this District is the so-called struck jury system: after challenges have been allowed for cause, the Clerk…