Jurors Backing the Blue...or Not

After 6 days of deliberation, a Buffalo jury adjourned without a verdict. The jury was reviewing allegations of police brutality against Corey Krug, an 18-year veteran of the Buffalo police officer. The jury, composed of 8 women and 4 men, is deciding whether Krug used excessive force in 3 separate incidents spanning across nearly a decade. Krug is now on suspension and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

This recent case made me think about police brutality cases, or lack thereof, in general. Each year there are about 1,000 police shootings. Even with that number of police-involved shootings, you may think that there are a lot of cases against police officers. Wrong. “Between 2005 and April 2017, 80 officers had been arrested on murder or manslaughter charges for on-duty shootings. During that 12-year span, 35% were convicted, while the rest were pending or not convicted.”

Impact of Jury Selection

Over recent years, the number of police brutality cases has increased. With this increase, jury selection has expectably become more difficult. “Prosecutors are looking for jurors who are usually more suspicious of law enforcement — liberals, minorities and people with arrest records — while the defense prefers conservatives, whites and the well-off, who tend to be more trusting of police officers.” However, these assumptions aren’t always helpful. Attorneys in the jury selection process must also determine whether or not a potential juror has seen or been exposed to a video of the police encounter.

Past the jury selection process, prosecutors say that’s extremely difficult to convict a police officer. “Jurors are often reluctant to second-guess the split-second life-or-death decisions of police officers in violent street encounters while on duty.” Some claim that this low conviction rate is racially motivated. In a study of the 13 police shooting trials after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, 11 of those cases were decided by majority-white juries.

Conflicting Viewpoints

Studies show that white Americans are more trusting of police officers than non-white Americans. Filing juries with a white Americans could “benefit law enforcement, as white Americans are more likely to express pro-law enforcement views than non-white Americans, and they are less likely to be acquainted with or sympathetic to issues of race and policing that many see as integral to these cases.” A recent poll illustrated the outlook on police of various racial groups:

• 68% of white had favorable views of local police, compared with 40% of blacks and 59% of Hispanics
• 35% of whites believed police are too quick to use lethal force, while 73% of blacks and 54% of Hispanics said police are too quick
• 64% of whites trusted that their local police treat all racial groups the same, compared with 31% of blacks and 42% of Hispanics

It's obvious that minorities don't share the same views as whites. But how will this continue to impact juries? While it’s unconstitutional for attorneys to strike potential jurors based on race, it’s difficult to prove motivation. Thus, making it hard to enforce the Batson provision. Attorneys can avoid violating this law by providing a race-neutral explanation for dismissing a juror candidate. Juries will likely continue to be lopsided until more pressure is put on attorneys to diversity the jury selection process.