For And (or others) Article Re: Kobe Jury Racial Composition, etc...

[HDPM]

Not a bad article in the Denver paper. web page (http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_2154018,00.html)

Doubtful many minorities will make it on the jury and you wonder if the ones interviewed will be DQ'd now. But the article does raise some interesting questions. What is kind of funny is that they talk about historical racial problems in Eagle County, but talk about moving the trial to Denver, a city with a much more troubled history, and more ongoing problems in my estimation. Now the jury might be fairer, might be better for one side or another, but Denver has had a lot of problems. So how far back do you go? Probably not back to Colorado's Klan heyday in the 20's, but there have been school desegregation problems, tension over gangs and violence in the '80's and 90's etc.... Sorta strange and interesting. I was even struck by the prosecutor from a jury in Denver once upon a time where I expressed the opinion, after being asked directly, (and even had some facts to back it up, LOL) that racism had in fact hurt blacks in the justice system from time to time. It was kind of funny. Definitely some racial tension in the courtroom.

[Ragnar]

This raises a very interesting possibility that I'm sure both sides jury consultants are investigating. The 25% Hispanic racial composition of Eagle County is a real wild card if the trial is there.

Standard jury selection theory is that Hispanics are much tougher on blacks than whites are. That varies by income level. However, the profiling issue by the sheriff's department may turn things in the other direction. If I were the prosecutor and directing the polling people I'd definitely have them ask about this and also see if there is a breakdown in sympathy toward Kobe by type of job and income among the Hispanic population.

Normally you'd poll in a similar county outside Eagle to do this, but the particular problems of that Sheriff's office would make it very tempting to poll there. Given small population doing that on any large scale could make jury selection more difficult.

I'd want that information before I made a decision about my position on change of venue whether I was representing the prosecution or the defense.

It is also very difficult for an elected prosecutor to advocate or agree to a change of venue for political reasons. You are in essence conceding that your constituents can't be fair. For reasons HDPM has pointed out previously and are discussed in the linked article I'm sure that the prosecution wouldn't want to go to Denver.

Ragnar