Constitutional Challenges to Jury Selection Procedures.

Jury selection procedures implicate due process, the Sixth Amendment, and equal protection principles. In limited situations, a defendant may challenge the jury selection process on the ground that it violates fundamental fairness under the Due Process Clause.

The Sixth Amendment forbids racial discrimination in the selection of jurors and requires that the jury venire from which the petit jury is selected represent a fair-cross-section of the community. However, the petit jury itself need not represent a fair-cross-section of the community. To establish a prima facie violation of the fair-cross-section requirement, the defendant must show that (1) the group allegedly excluded is a “distinctive” group in the community; (2) the group was not fairly represented in the venire from which the petit jury was chosen; and (3) the underrepresentation resulted from a systematic exclusion of the group in the jury selection process. A criminal defendant need not be a member of the underrepresented group to have standing to raise the claim. To rebut a prima facie showing of a fair-cross-section violation, the prosecution must show that the disproportionate exclusion manifestly and primarily advances a significant government interest.

A defendant may challenge a venire on equal protection grounds by demonstrating that the venire was selected in an intentionally discriminatory fashion. To establish a prima facie case of intentional discrimination against a particular group, the defendant must demonstrate that (1) the group is a recognizable class; (2) the selection procedure resulted in substantial underrepresentation of the group over a significant period of time; and (3) the selection procedure is susceptible to abuse or is not racially neutral. To rebut the prima facie showing, the government must prove an absence of discriminatory intent.