"Lack of racial diversity leads judge to dismiss jury pool" Globe Gazette May 14, 2015
FORT DODGE, Iowa — An Iowa judge has dismissed a 112-member jury pool after determining that a black man charged with murder could not get a fair trial when all but one potential juror is white.
Defense lawyer Charles Kenville said that the lack of racial diversity was not intentional but that ‘‘the system is broken in Webster County, and this court needs to fix it for Mr. Washington’s rights to be upheld.’’
He called for a change in the computerized systems by which citizens are requested for jury service. Kenville said minority conviction rates decrease by 10 percent if a minority is on the jury panel....
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