Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers Urge Governor Quinn to Veto Bill Which Will Reduce Minority Representation on Juries
Published on: December 12, 2014
On December 11, 2014, Chicago Appleseed and Chicago Council of Lawyers sent the following request to Governor Quinn:
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Dear Governor Quinn:
On behalf of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, I am writing to urge you to veto the provision in SB3075 that would reduce the size of juries in civil cases from twelve to six members. Objective research on the jury system shows that the effect of that change would be to reduce minority representation on our juries significantly.
An article by Diamond, Peery, Dolan and Dolan, which was published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. concludes that “reducing jury size inevitably has a drastic effect on the representation of minority group members on the jury.” They analyzed data from 277 civil jury trials in Cook County.
The bill also includes a provision increasing the compensation of jurors. That would be an improvement. With the amendatory veto, of course, you could keep the increased pay while preventing the very negative consequences of the reduction in jury size.
The Brown and Garner grand jury cases in Missouri and New York have revealed a deep-seated distrust of the impartiality of the administration of justice, especially among people of color. We must not enact legislation that research shows will decrease the representation of minority group members on the jury. Minorities are already greatly underrepresented in our legal institutions. Decreasing minority representation on our juries would be one of the worst things we could do.
Sincerely,
Malcolm Rich
Executive Director
Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers
To ask Governor Quinn to use his amendatory veto power on SB3075, please go to: