Batson v. Kentucky - Significance, Selecting The Jury, The Decision, Broadened In Scope, Further Readings

Batson v. Kentucky - Significance

Limited the use of the peremptory challenge, which had given attorneys on both sides the right to strike potential jurors without providing a valid reason. Sex-based peremptory challenges were extended to include those based on race, making it illegal to dismiss a juror based on race. In 1981, James Kirkland Batson went to trial in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on burglary charges. Batson was an Afr…

Batson v. Kentucky - Further Readings

Batson v. Kentucky - Selecting The Jury

Peremptory-challenge rules often resulted in all-white juries in criminal cases for African American defendants, on the assumption that an African American might not vote to convict another African American. In a more extreme case, it was used to exclude African American jurors from the trial of a member of the Ku Klux Klan charged with the murder of an African American. One significant Supreme Co…

Batson v. Kentucky - The Decision

Batson v. Kentucky reversed the 1965 Swain ruling. (The case gained added impact because of the fact that perhaps only once a year does the High Court reverse its prior decisions.) Justice Powell delivered the opinion of the 7-2 majority vote. Justice White, who had written the 1965 decision, sided with the majority to overturn it. The Court ruled that peremptory challenges, in effect, deny a defe…

Batson v. Kentucky - Broadened In Scope

After sending Batson v. Kentucky back to the lower judicial body, the High Court set forth new rules for peremptory challenges to be used there. If a defendant does not approve of the selected jury, he or she must indicate that there were grounds to "infer" that a juror was excluded because of race--for instance, that both are members of a cognizable minority group. Next, the judge must demand a "…