All-White Jury Pools In Florida Convict Blacks 15 Percent More Often Than Whites, Study Finds

In Florida, all-white jury pools found blacks accused of crimes guilty 16 percent more often than they did with white defendants according to a new study by researches at Duke University.

The study also found that the disparity in guilty verdicts essentially vanished with the presence of just one black juror in the pool of jurors.

"I think this is really the first strong and convincing evidence that the racial composition of a jury actually has a big effect on trial outcomes," Patrick Bayer, the chairman of the economics department at Duke and the study's senior author, said in a video about the report. "Our Sixth Amendment right to a trial [with] a jury of our peers is a bedrock of the criminal justice system in the U.S., and yet despite the importance of that right there's been actually very little systematic analysis of how the composition of juries actually affects trial outcomes and how the rules we have in place actually affect those outcomes."

The researchers looked at data from about 700 trials in Sarasota and Lake counties in Florida over a 10-year period, and then looked at the race of the defendant, the charges against him or her, and the case's outcome.

"We focus on what happened to the conviction rates in the trials where there are no blacks in the jury pool," he said. "Of course there can't be any black members of the jury then."

According to the study, a jury pool — which is usually about 27 people — that has no black members convicted black defendants 81 percent of the time and white defendants 66 percent of the time, a 15-point difference.

But adding just one black juror drove the convictions of blacks down to 71 percent, a shade lower than the 71 percent conviction rate for white defendants with at least one black potential juror in the pool.

"So there's basically a 17-percentage point change in conviction rates just based on this random change, day to day, on who's called for jury duty," Bayer said.

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Comments

[mylashun40]

06:30 PM on 05/08/2013

Tulia Texas 1999 Drug Bust...

[luapmi2]

03:52 PM on 04/19/2012

don't expect blacks to be on juries anytime soon. if you had any interaction with the police you're usually disqualified.

[Karissa36]

11:55 AM on 04/19/2012

You have more blacks in the jury pool when there are more blacks in the population the pool draws from. This is generally registered voters or from driver's license data. I have tried cases in Counties where people can ask to be included in jury pools. These were overwhelmingly white senior citizens, and it did skew the pools.

[rc1330]

09:28 AM on 04/19/2012

As someone who has tried cases in Florida I am not surprised at all. Many times there were cases where the defendant was absolutely guilty but acquitted because of race. White jurors have come to me after a mistrial and said the black jurors would not convict no matter what. But I had many black jurors who convicted black defendants as well. It's just one of those things.

[sgtbattle]

03:35 PM on 04/19/2012

Oh....so it's the blacks that are the racist ones? Wow...you obviously can't read.

[rc1330]

04:32 PM on 04/19/2012

Oh no I certainly can read. Apparently my comment went completed over your head. I was giving an explanation (from my experience) of why white juries would be more likely to convict. I do not think they convict black people just because of the color of their skin. I had plenty of white juries walk black defendants. I think a reason for less convictions by black juries is because of what I stated earlier. But you go right ahead and attack my comprehension skills...

[Richcrafter]

02:32 AM on 04/19/2012

Duh! White is right as a racist says.

[Thedjsketox]

10:46 PM on 04/18/2012

Well didnt the OJ case prove that often times black people refuse to convict their own kind, even when the evidence is overwhelming? I think they see it as sticking together and a way to give a middle finger to the white man.

[So Over It]

01:36 AM on 04/19/2012

"Their own kind" - uh, they can see what you're typing.

[bg3]

12:53 PM on 04/19/2012

Theirown have been better?

[So Over It]

01:46 AM on 04/19/2012

Thedjsketox: "Black people refuse to convict 'their own kind'"... Are you for real? Who says that?

[bg3]

01:52 PM on 04/19/2012

these people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g26StfErCk0

[BiggpussJr]

02:42 PM on 04/18/2012

I have GOT to find out how I can get some of this "Study Money" I mean they REALLY needed a study to know this?

[bg3]

03:17 PM on 04/18/2012

yea look at my post below and you can see why

[BiggpussJr]

03:40 PM on 04/18/2012

None of your post makes any sense, I asked why you feel the way you feel and you come up with nothing. I will debate you on anything you choose.

[shbkyn]

09:42 PM on 04/18/2012

Yes, because the only people who will admit this is happening, are black people. Whites believe racism was over after intergration. Since electing a black president, those whites who believed racism was over, now you hear them saying, I thought this was behind us. In the words of my belove Dr. Neely Fuller, Jr., "if you do not know what racism is, everything you think you know about race relation, will only confuse you".

[bg3]

12:13 PM on 04/18/2012

I think I found the reason why the rate goes up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g26StfErCk0

[TAHARQA]

05:59 PM on 04/19/2012

So you use this one anecdotal incident to make what you want it to be as opposed to the study of 700 cases? How uh.. Intelligent.

[bg3]

12:03 PM on 04/18/2012

You know sometimes its best to let sleeping dogs lay

Kristin Edwards was raped by Vance a few months before his attack on Pressly. Her saving grace appears to have been her passivity. Edwards did not attempt to fight, which apparently kept her alive, as Vance did indeed threaten to kill her. Ironically, it was his rape of Edwards that led to his identification as Pressly's attacker. After finding the DNA match to the unsolved Edwards rape, police in Little Rock got a tip to investigate Vance from the detective in the small town (Marianna) where Edwards lived at the time of the rape.

Vance was convicted of the murder of Pressly, and the DNA match pinned him as the rapist of Edwards, so he went on trial on the rape charge this week. Vance was identified as Edward's attacker by DNA match, the victim's direct testimony, and the accused's own confession. Yet...

After merely THREE HOURS of deliberation, the judge agreed to a mistrial, as 7 of the jurors refused to convict. the prosecuting attorney nor the judge had any hope the jury would agree on basic facts, or could be persuaded by reason. After mere three hours, they just agreed to drop the trial.

The reason: the racist blacks on the jury. It has been confirmed that the composition of the jury was 7 blacks and 5 whites (http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story/Pressly-killer-rape-trial-ends-in-mistrial-jury/98WRVqFwF0G1p-pt7-7exQ.cspx).

[NatTurner1]

09:04 AM on 04/18/2012

This just in, Birds fly! I know I know, they needed to do another poll on this to come to this conclusion!

C'mon, America has a disgusting history of what All-White Juries do!

See: Emmett Till

[bg3]

11:15 AM on 04/18/2012

Thats pitiful

[dwill123]

08:35 AM on 04/18/2012

"All-White Jury Pools In Florida Convict Blacks 15 Percent More Often Than Whites"

F-A-S-C-I-N-A-T-I-N-G

[bg3]

11:16 AM on 04/18/2012

Must mean blacks on jury's let their peers go free more often even if guilty

[FulaniyiraX]

02:53 PM on 04/19/2012

And White people don't, Bulldung! White people find their peer not guilty more so than any other race on this planet.

[FulaniyiraX]

02:54 PM on 04/19/2012

*peers

[rneequaye]

08:18 AM on 04/18/2012

Did it really take a study to come to this conclusion? They could have saved money and emailed me. ([e-mail]) or they could have asked any prosecutor (although most will most likely lie and say justice is blind) or defense attorney and saved that money. Hopefully the study did not cost tax payers a lot of money.

[bg3]

11:44 AM on 04/18/2012

you know whats funny. You have to look at the figures and determine on your own, that the same things happens when you put a black on a jury with a white defendant. I wonder why that wasnt pointed out in the article

[vidian6]

03:57 AM on 04/18/2012

I don't see how anyone would be surprised at this .If you've ever been called for jury duty and your a minority, then you get the idea of what's going on pretty quickly. What happens in most cases is that your rarely called for the pool, and when you are called for the pool. You more often than not the victim of a premtory challenge, and this goes on everyday.

[Dorrell Bennett]

02:55 AM on 04/18/2012

It seems like everyday I read the paper we end up taking no step forward and 5 steps backwards.

[rneequaye]

08:19 AM on 04/18/2012

I totally agree, but atleast the information is out there and perhaps an honest conversation about race will be the result though I will not count on it. There is nothing wrong with a dream.

[bg3]

11:08 AM on 04/18/2012

Like perhaps blacks don't want to convict a brother or sister?

[bg3]

11:45 AM on 04/18/2012

ok then why does having a black on the jury make the likelyhood of a white persons conviction go up? lets discuss

[Cutie Pie 2]

01:30 AM on 04/18/2012

Nah...really?