Race, Juries, and Texas Lawyers

The Dallas Morning News (thx, Rodney) has a fascinating series on jury selection in Dallas:

Racial discrimination in jury selection was a scourge on the Dallas County district attorney's office for decades and was cited recently by the U.S. Supreme Court as it overturned a 1986 death penalty case. The Dallas Morning News spent two years gathering and analyzing jury data from felony court trials to see what had changed.

Key Findings:
• Dallas County prosecutors excluded black jurors at more than twice the rate they rejected whites.
• Defense attorneys excluded whites at more than three times the rate they rejected blacks.
• Even when blacks and whites gave similar answers to key questions asked by prosecutors, blacks were excluded at higher rates.
• Blacks ultimately served on juries in numbers that mirror their population primarily because of the dueling prosecution and defense strategies.

You can read the series here (free registration required).