All-white juries are more likely to convict black defendants than white defendants, but having a single black juror drastically changes that outcome. According to a Duke University study of 700 cases between 2001–2010 in Florida, “blacks were convicted 81 percent of the time, and whites were convicted 66 percent of the time” in cases with an all-white jury. But when at least one black person was included in the jury pool, “the conviction rates were nearly identical: 71 percent for black defendants, 73 percent for whites.” Mother Jones’ Adam Serwer points out that eliminating jurors based on race is illegal, of course, but this report shows that the racial makeup of a jury can have a dramatic impact on a trial’s outcome.
Advertisement