Sixteen Million Angry Men: Reviving a Dead Doctrine to Challenge the Constitutionality of Excluding Felons from Jury Service
43 Pages Posted: 17 Aug 2018
Date Written: January 1, 2009
Abstract
While conceding that precedent and contextual factors prohibit the characterization of jury service as a fundamental right and pose insurmountable barriers to establishing felons as a class worthy of special protection, this Article contends that under the equal protection model, jury service is an important right, the burden of which mandates intermediate constitutional scrutiny. Moreover, this Article asserts that felon jury exclusion statutes warrant the application of the irrebuttable presumption doctrine because they overinclusively presume felons to be unsuitable for jury service while preventing them from taking part in voir dire, an established, individualized process for determining juror fitness.
Keywords: Convicted Felon, Juror, Jury Exclusion, Irrebuttable Presumption, Equal Protection
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