Pubdate: Sat, 20 May 2000
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
Contact:  http://www.star-telegram.com/
Forum: http://www.star-telegram.com/comm/forums/
Author: Robert Merkin

THE JUROR FACTOR

The May 14 article "Cocaine bust unravels tight-knit community" by
Melody McDonald inexplicably failed to discuss a central aspect of the
controversial drug prosecutions in Tulia: the racial composition of
the grand jury and trial juries.

It is common knowledge that the War on Drugs imprisons dramatically
disproportionate numbers of African- Americans and Hispanics, both by
population and by known volumes of drug use by race. This systematic
bias against non-white Americans in our criminal justice system was
most recently detailed in reports by the National Council on Crime and
Delinquency, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

But a rarely discussed consequence is the lifelong loss of the right
to vote that accompanies a felony conviction. Those so disenfranchised
vanish forever from jury lists. This phenomenon is particularly acute
and statistically severe in the Sun Belt, and it has effectively
resurrected Jim Crow at the ballot box and in the jury box.

Those who defend this as an unintended but lawful and fair consequence
of the War on Drugs would do well to recall the defenses of the old
Jim Crow: unpassable literacy tests, poll taxes and the grandfather
clause.

So I ask the `Star-Telegram to provide the racial composition of the
Tulia juries.

Robert Merkin
Northampton, Mass.
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MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson