What is the burden of making systematic exclusion of African-Americans from a jury?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Lewis, 106 Cal.Rptr.2d 629, 22 P.3d 392, 25 Cal.4th 610 (Cal. 2001):

Here, defendant acknowledges he lacks evidence that any disparity in representation of African-Americans in the venire was the result of an improper feature in the jury selection process. He nonetheless urges this court to reconsider the requirement that a defendant present something more than statistical evidence of a disparity to satisfy this prong of the threepart test for establishing a prima facie case of violation of the fair cross-section requirement. Defendant fails to provide any reasons why a defendant's burden in this regard should be lightened. Accordingly, we decline to revisit the issue here. (See People v. Bell, supra, 49 Cal.3d at pp. 528-531, 262 Cal.Rptr. 1, 778 P.2d 129 [discussing why statistical showing of underrepresentation is inadequate to meet defendant's burden of showing systematic exclusion].)

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