We have a very interesting situation here in Detroit dealing with the
trial of our former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, his father and a friend in federal
court on numerous charges including racketeering.
The situation, which I have talked about before, involves
seating a jury and race.
Kilpatrick is claiming he cannot get a fair trial in Detroit because he demands to be triad by a jury of his
peers, as stipulated by law, which he equates to a jury of blacks knowing full
well that in Detroit ,
blacks do not want to serve on juries for a variety of legitimate and
illegitimate reasons.
To me, one’s peers are people who reside in the same
district you reside in or at least in the district your crime was committed in.
It does not mean that if I was on trial, I could demand to be tried by only
Polish-Americans or Asians by Asians, etc. but I do agree that a jury should
reflect the general makeup of the surrounding population.
On the other hand, I have been noticing a trend in trial
juries where a lone black juror would not convict even if presented with
undeniable evidence for conviction. This lone juror holdout phenomenon has
happened on a number of occasions most recently in the trial of Kilpatrick’s
buddy in crime; a mistrial was called and a new trial scheduled…a huge waste of
time and money / our money.
This phenomenon has now been recognized and picked up by the
papers and the prosecution.
The dilemma is how to seat black jurors as part of an
attempt to seat more diverse juries and yet how to prevent the seating of that
one black juror who’s only purpose is to get a mistrial by holding out against
conviction.
The judge in this case is trying a different tactic by
withholding all information about individual jurors; hoping that the jurors
cannot be compromised beforehand by the Kilpatrick team.
Kilpatrick is very cocky these days because he knows he has
the legal system in a bind and is pretty sure he will get acquitted one way or
another.
I find this situation very interesting from a legal
standpoint but also from a head scratching point knowing that a corrupt ex
mayor who robbed the city blind can declare poverty to the extent that he
cannot seem to pay $200 a month in restitution to the city and therefore gets
us, the taxpayers, to fund his very expensive defense team but manages to dress
in a new $1,000+ suit every day…only in Detroit.
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