This Quiz Shows the Depressing, Racist Truth About Juror Bias in the United States
The Marshall Project wants everyone to know just how hard it is to prove that unconstitutional prejudice exists within a jury.
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“I guess we are profiling, but they cause all the trouble.” Racist statements such as this may be abundant in jury deliberations—but how often do you think a higher court rules to reverse a conviction because of jury prejudice? That is what The Marshall Project, a nonprofit dedicated to news of the criminal justice system, wants you to answer in its new quiz, “How Racist Is Too Racist?”
Marshall Project commentary editor Andrew Cohen writes:
The U.S. Supreme Court just agreed to hear the case of Miguel Angel Pena-Rodriguez, a Colorado man who argued the jury that convicted him of misdemeanor sexual offenses in 2007 was tainted by bias. During deliberations, a juror confided to others that he knew the defendant was guilty “because he is Mexican, and Mexican men take whatever they want.” …
We’ll give you the juror’s statement. You tell us if the court upheld the conviction or reversed it because of jury bias.
Take the quiz yourself and see if you can guess how higher courts ruled from case to case. As The Marshall Project warns, the quiz includes “highly objectionable language.”
–Posted by Emma Niles
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