A Call to Criminal Courts: Record Rules for Batson

No one paying attention needs to be told the verdict on Batson v. Kentucky.' Batson intended to eliminate the influence of race on jury selection, 2 which is essential both to conducting fair and just trials' and to protecting the reputation of the justice system. 4 Batson failed.' A growing collection of empirical studies documents this failure.6 Dozens of articles analyze the reasons for the failure,' and at least one report documents the humiliation suffered when qualified jurors appear for jury service only to be excluded in a situation that appears to be driven by race.8 Many have called for the abolition of peremptory challenges as the only fix.