Race and the Georgia Courts: Implications of the Georgia Public Trust and Confidence Survey for Batson v. Kentucky and It's Progeny
18 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2012 Last revised: 20 Oct 2015
Date Written: February 11, 2003
Abstract
At the request of the Georgia Supreme Court, two of the authors recently conducted research concerning public trust and confidence in the Georgia court system. Questions were modeled on a national survey conducted in 1999 for the National Center for State Courts. Among the more striking findings in both the Georgia and national surveys were those disclosing the impact of racial identity-both the race of those responding to the survey and the race of groups identified in particular questions-on public views of the judicial system. Put simply, there is a perception among many Georgians that the court system treats minorities worse than whites
This Essay considers implications of the Georgia findings for a line of United States Supreme Court decisions designed to prevent racial discrimination by trial lawyers in the selection of trial juries. In Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court concluded that a government lawyer prosecuting an African-American criminal defendant violates the Equal Protection Clause if the prosecutor uses peremptory challenges for the purpose of excluding African-Americans from the jury. The Batson principle has been extended in a series of subsequent decisions, so that the prohibition on racially discriminatory peremptory challenges now extends to all trial attorneys, regardless of the nature of the case or the identity of the client.
This Essay will discuss some of the survey's findings and trace out various respects in which the data speaks to the rationale, the implications, and the effectiveness of Batson.
Keywords: Georgia, Racism, Batson v. Kentucky, Jury Selection, Voir Dire, Racial Discrimination
JEL Classification: K41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation