On December 19, 2014, Governor Quinn signed into law SB 3075\u00a0that reduces the size of juries in civil case from twelve to six members.\u00a0 The law, which takes effect June 1, 2015,\u00a0also includes a provision increasing the compensation of jurors.\u00a0 While Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers support the increased compensation of jurors, we are concerned about the impact that reducing jury size may have on minority representation on juries.\u00a0 Research analyzing data from 277 civil jury trials in Cook County showed that “reducing jury size inevitably has a drastic effect on the representation of minority group members on the jury” (from an article by Diamond, Peery, Dolan and Dolan, which was published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies).\u00a0 On December 11, 2014, Chicago Appleseed and Chicago Council of Lawyers sent the following request to Governor Quinn:<\/p>\n
___________________<\/p>\n
Dear Governor Quinn:<\/p>\n
On behalf of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, I am writing to urge you to veto the provision in SB3075 that would reduce the size of juries in civil cases from twelve to six members.\u00a0 Objective research on the jury system shows that the effect of that change would be to reduce minority representation on our juries significantly.<\/p>\n
An article by Diamond, Peery, Dolan and Dolan, which was published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.\u00a0 concludes that\u00a0 \u201creducing jury size inevitably has a drastic effect on the representation of minority group members on the jury.\u201d\u00a0 They analyzed data from 277 civil jury trials in Cook County.<\/p>\n
The bill also includes a provision increasing the compensation of jurors.\u00a0 That would be an improvement.\u00a0 With the amendatory veto, of course, you could keep the increased pay while preventing the very negative consequences of the reduction in jury size.<\/p>\n
The Brown and Garner grand jury cases in Missouri and New York have revealed a deep-seated distrust of the impartiality of the administration of justice, especially among people of color.\u00a0 We must not enact legislation that research shows will decrease the representation of minority group members on the jury. Minorities are already greatly underrepresented in our legal institutions.\u00a0 Decreasing minority representation on our juries would be one of the worst things we could do.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Malcolm Rich<\/p>\n
Executive Director<\/p>\n
Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On December 19, 2014, Governor Quinn signed into law SB […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy-statements"],"yoast_head":"\n