STACKING THE JURY IN GEORGIA

     We have been informed by an alert correspondent of a likely 
jury-rigging scheme in south Georgia.  It appears that the local 
legal establishment draws names for the jury pool from a less 
than representative cross section of the local eligible 
population.  It is known that some people are selected repeatedly 
in short periods of time, while others are seldom selected--once 
in twenty years, for instance.

     In addition, a secret list of jurors who have given guilty 
verdicts in the past is maintained by the District Attorney.  A 
local defense attorney petitioned the court for a copy of that 
list because it gave the D.A. an unfair advantage during jury 
selection, but the judge refused to require the D.A. to release 
the list.

     The question, of course, is are people being selected over 
and over again for "hanging juries"?  The D.A. could build an 
impressive conviction record by doing this, but defendants' 
rights to a fair trial would be shredded! 

     A local attorney points out that conviction-prone jurors are 
the kind of people insurance companies love to have hear 
personal-injury cases, and they tend to side with polluters 
against environmentalists, and with the establishment against 
civil rights plaintiffs.  The Jury Commission is scrambling to 
cover its tracks now that questions have been raised.

     It may be that variants of this kind of sleazy operation are 
common throughout the country.  If you are rarely or never called 
for jury duty despite being registered to vote and licensed to 
drive, perhaps a little digging around might yield some 
interesting information.  

     If and when jury-rigging can be identified in a local 
judicial district, the press might be very interested in what you 
have uncovered.  Such information could be of great utility in 
promoting awareness of FIJA, and could be used to rally excluded 
groups around the issue of jury rights.
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