Affirmative Action in Jury Selection : Racially Representative Juries, Racial Quotas, and Affirmative Juries of the Hennepin Model and the Jury De Medietate Linguae

In July 1995, the University of California Board of Regents voted to end affirmative action based on race and gender in admissions, hiring, and contracting. Recently, the Equal Opportunity Act introduced by the Republicans would abolish three decades of affirmative action programs initiated by President Johnson in 1965. Given these actions, Americans will have another opportunity to decide whether racial preferences should be terminated from all federal programs.While the question of preferential treatment of racial minorities has divided the nation and even some minority communities themselves, affirmative action in jury proceedings and trials has yet to receive much-deserved attention. This article examines public perceptions of possible application of affirmative action in criminal jury proceedings, focusing on the uses of mandatory racial quotas in criminal jury trials. We examine two different types of racially mixed juries -- the jury "de medietate linguae" and the Hennepin jury model -- and we analyze the political implications of affirmative mechanisms ensuring minority participation on juries. This Article argues that an affirmative mechanism to secure racially-representative juries is essential to both the appearance and substance of fairness in criminal jury proceedings, and that maximizing the essence of legitimacy of jury verdicts is a compelling governmental interest