A Stubborn Legacy: The Overwhelming Importance of Race in Jury Selection in 173 Post-Batson North Carolina Capital Trials

• Author: Catherine M. Grosso - Barbara O'Brien
• Position: Associate professors at the Michigan State University College of Law
• Pages: 1531-1559

1531

A Stubborn Legacy: The Overwhelming

Importance of Race in Jury Selection in

173 Post-Batson North Carolina Capital

Trials

Catherine M. Grosso & Barbara O’Brien

I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1533

II. THE STUBBORN LEGACY OF RACE IN JURY SELECTION: THE RULES

AND THE REALITY ................................................................................. 1534

A. EXPERIMENTAL AND MOCK-JURY STUDIES ........................................ 1536

B. STUDIES EXAMINING JURY SELECTION IN ACTUAL TRIALS ................. 1538

C. STUDIES ANALYZING APPELLATE DECISIONS REVIEWING BATSON

CLAIMS .......................................................................................... 1540

III. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 1542

A. STUDY POPULATION ....................................................................... 1542

B. DATA COLLECTION ......................................................................... 1543

C. OVERVIEW OF DATABASE DEVELOPMENT .......................................... 1543

D. RACE CODING ................................................................................ 1544

E. CODING RACE-NEUTRAL CONTROL VARIABLES (DESCRIPTIVE

INFORMATION) ............................................................................... 1547



 This research was made possible through the financial support of the AJ Fletcher

Foundation, Butler Family Foundation, Center for Death Penalty Litigation, Maverick Lloyd

Foundation, Open Society Institute, Proteus Action League, Vital Projects Fund, Winston-Salem

Community Foundation, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and an anonymous funder. We also

wish to thank each of the staff attorneys who worked with us on this project, with special thanks

to Abijah Taylor and Ibrahim Ayyub for their dedication and commitment to ensuring a

complete and accurate database. Our statistical analyses were greatly aided by Deborah Kashy

and especially George Woodworth, whose assistance and advice was invaluable. We also owe a

debt to the outstanding research librarians at our John F. Schaefer Law Library, and recognize

in particular the role of the Michigan State University College of Law in hosting our jury-st udy

research team and in absorbing all indirect costs relating to this study without hesitation.

Finally, we wish to acknowledge the considerable guidance of the late David Baldus, who both

inspired and motivated us with his advice and exemplary scholarship.

 Catherine Grosso and Barbara O’Brien are ass ociate professors at the Michigan State

University College of Law.

1532 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 97:1531

F. STATEWIDE UNADJUSTED PROSECUTORIAL STRIKE PATTERNS ........... 1548

IV. THE EFFECT OF RACE AFTER CONTROLLING FOR VENIRE MEMBERS’

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS ON THE EXERCISE OF PEREMPTORY

STRIKES ................................................................................................ 1550

V. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 1557

APPENDIX A ......................................................................................... 1558