Instead, he ruled that the District has one of the most “inclusive” systems in America
A judge has ruled that the jury system in Washington, D.C., long considered “Chocolate City,” does not tend to block Blacks from duty in favor of Whites. The ruling by Superior Court Judge James E. Boasberg was a blow to the D.C. Public Defender Service, which has argued vehemently that the nation’s capital systematically excludes Black jurors. But Boasberg said Blacks might even be overrepresented in the pool of potential jurors. Armed with court orders, the Public Defender Service brought in scores of experts to scour through two years worth of papers and procedures, and to analyze jury pools and other data. What the attorneys found was that in D.C., which is 60 percent Black, 36 percent of Superior Court jurors were Black. But, instead of agreeing with the lawyers based on the statistical evidence, the judge found the data “wholly misleading.” Boasberg wrote in his ruling, “The data uncovered in this litigation conclusively prove that Black jurors are not unconstitutionally underrepresented in Superior Court [lists] – in fact, they are overrepresented in summonses issued – and there is also no systematic exclusion of Black jurors.” What he did find convincing was another study conducted for the U.S. attorney’s office showing that Blacks made up 56 percent of the city’s “adult” population and about 53 percent of the jurors over that two-year period. The public defenders’ concerns have fallen on sympathetic ears in recent years. Take the criminal case last year of a Black defendant who drew a jury pool of 70 candidates that included 61 Whites, eight Blacks and an Asian. The presiding judge, Neal E. Kravitz, agreeing with defense attorneys, demanded a new panel.