RACINE COUNTY — Every person charged with a crime in the United States has the right to be judged by their peers in a jury trial.

Minority peers, though, can be hard to come by in Racine County, resulting in all-white juries deciding the future of dozens of the court system’s minority defendants.

In late September, Ricky McMorris, a black man, went on trial for a third time for a charge of armed robbery while attempting to conceal his identity.

When the 40 prospective jurors filed into Racine County Circuit Court Judge Emily Mueller’s courtroom there was one black man on the panel. The rest were white.

Larry Dunkerly, a Hispanic man, experienced a similar circumstance.

Dunkerly was on trial for shooting a Racine County Sheriff’s Department deputy in the foot. The jury panel consisted of about 35 perspective jurors: one was black, one was Hispanic.

This is common for many minority defendants in the county who take their case to a jury. But a review of the system over one month found that, while fewer than 1 out of every 13 people called to service attend jury duty, Racine County met its legal requirements for juries in regard to race.

Where are they?

In all of 2005, the county’s court system was able to locate 14 percent of the county’s 16 percent of adult minorities available for jury duty.

But less than half of the minorities called to serve actually participated in the civic service, while a majority of the defendants who appeared before juries were black or Hispanic.

This leads to largely white juries deciding the fate of minority defendants — a disparity that may influence the judicial process.

Working collectively with the county’s Jury Committee and jury clerk, The Journal Times researched the county’s jury system. A JT reporter also has attended numerous jury trials over the past three months and talked with high-ranking court officials and court experts in Wisconsin.

Journal Times research included looking at August’s jury summonses. The data revealed the following:

• Of the 693 people called to jury duty in August 118, or 17 percent, were minorities. 

• Of the 118 minority citizens called, which include blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians, 49, or 42 percent, attended.

• The remaining 69 minority citizens, the other 58 percent, either did not reply or appear for jury duty, or never received their summons because of an invalid address.

• Of the total jury pool called in August, 7 percent of those who attended were minorities and 51 percent were white. Approximately 42 percent of all prospective jurors called did not attend.

It’s legal

The disparity in racial makeup of the prospective juries, at least in August, is not unconstitutional.

The courts have ruled that the jury pool — the group of people at the courthouse ready to serve, and from which a jury will be picked — must reflect a cross-section of the community.

If a “distinct group” of the community is underrepresented in the jury pool by more than 10 percentage points, courts have ruled that fair trials and impartial juries, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for criminal cases, are in jeopardy.

The county easily met this burden in August. Its prospective minority jury pool was 14 percent, compared to the county’s overall minority population of 16 percent. In order to be found unconstitutional, the percentage of minorities called to jury duty in August would have had to be 6 percent or less.

Even though the county met its requirement, it did not guarantee a minority the chance be selected for a jury.

The county has a white population of 156,796, compared to 36,894 minorities, according to U.S. Census data in 2000, the most recent information available.

Because the county is predominately white in racial makeup, it’s expected that the majority of people being called to jury duty would be white.

Judges and attorneys interviewed for this story said they felt that if the number of minorities reachable for jury duty could increase, and if more minorities summoned for jury duty appeared to serve, the county’s jury system would dramatically improve.

Problems with juries begin before the summonses are even sent out, though.

The county uses a computerized list from the Department of Motor Vehicles to compile its jury pool, according to Jury Clerk Claudette Woods. The list has more than 13,000 names on it.

The list contains names of individuals who are blind or have one or more of the following: A driver’s license, state identification card, a registered vehicle or an arrest for a driving offense.

Using this list may leave minorities out of prospective jury pools, said District Court Administrator Kerry Connelly.  

“A lot of minorities don’t have valid driver’s licenses or state IDs,” Connelly said. “And some just don’t want to serve.”

And the number is …

To select prospective jurors, a computer randomly sends out about 250 jury summons each week, Woods said. Out of that number, depending on how many jury trials are scheduled for the county’s six courtrooms, a select number of people are asked to attend.

Summonses are mailed each week with the expectation that at least 20 — or 8 percent — will not reach jurors because of incorrect addresses.

“Some of the addresses on the list are at least eight years old; that’s the difficulty,” Connelly said.

If an individual moves and does not update their address with the Department of Motor Vehicles, it’s likely the summons will never reach that person.

In the first week of August, 251 jury summons were mailed. In that group, The Journal Times found:

• Of the 251 jury summons sent out, 27, or 11 percent, were returned as undeliverable because of an incorrect address.

• Of the 27 returned, 15 were minorities. A total of 40 summonses went to minorities.

• Seven people no longer lived in Racine County.

Even if the summons makes it to your door, it doesn’t mean you will have to serve on a jury.

On Aug. 5, jurors who held the number 1 through 161 were selected to come to the courthouse to serve. The remaining 90 people did not have to serve and were dismissed.

Of those who responded, 13 people, or 16 percent, were minorities and 69 people, or 84 percent, were white. Eighteen minorities and 62 whites did not appear.

A juror’s view

When David Williams walked into Mueller’s courtroom with the pool of jurors for the McMorris trial — McMorris was charged with robbing a credit union — he couldn’t believe he was the lone minority.

“What happened to the rest of the black people?” Williams said he remembered thinking.

Williams was chosen to serve as a juror. One of the most trying aspects of being on the jury was deliberating for a verdict, Williams said.

“Some of the other jurors tried to play the race card. A couple people told me that I was personally trying to turn it into a race issue,” Williams said.

James Person, who served as a juror on a civil case in August said he, too, was the lone minority on the jury.

Of all the jurors who came to serve that day with Person, there was only “one other person of color,” he said.

Defense attorneys fear different views will not be expressed if there are not minorities on a jury.

“If no one on the pool has had different experiences, they might assume the defendant is lying and convict,” attorney Mark Nielsen said. “It’s not that a black juror will vote in favor of a black defendant, but often minorities have different experiences than someone who lives in say, Burlington.” 

McMorris’ attorney, Walter Stern, agreed.

“Our courts have said over and over we need a fair distribution,” Stern said. “If one group in society is either excluded or substantially reduced, you don’t have that input.”

The problem defense attorneys run into is that in order to challenge a jury pool that is predominately white, they would have to challenge the way the jurors are selected.

According to state law, each county in the state has to select its jurors using the DMV. The courts can add more names by compiling an additional list using utility company records, municipal directories and lists that include people who receive state aid.

Any challenge against the system in Racine County would fail because the county selects its jurors in accordance with state law.

But experts struggle with an argument: The list could be biased toward those who have a DMV record or it could be an accurate representation of the community.

“If we only use the DMV list, what happens to people who don’t have driver’s licenses or IDs, or driving offenses? They won’t be summoned because they’re not on the list,” said Daniel Blinka, a professor of law at Marquette University and a former Milwaukee County prosecutor.

Reaching out to minorities

Members of the Racine County Jury Committee are looking at ways in which the county can better reach its minority residents.

“The judiciary is open to using different lists, if we can use them,” said Eugene Gasiorkiewicz, a Jury Committee member. “Racine County is proactive in terms of trying to get parity in terms of population.”

The committee had been in discussions with pastors who lead minority-attended churches to obtain their parishioners list. This idea was rejected after it was determined at a recent judge’s meeting that the list was not state-approved.

Racine County Circuit Judge Faye Flancher, who chairs the committee, said they are addressing the need for change of address forms as well.

“In traffic court, maybe, we can have people fill the forms out there. This way people wouldn’t have to go to the DMV,” Flancher said.

And, while the county is working to bring more minorities into jury pools, it’s well above the legal limit for minority jurors.

“We’re doing well but we could be doing better,” Flancher said.