April 21
USA: Judging juries You don't have to be a social scientist to realize that racially diverse juries might engage in more give-and-take than homogeneous ones. Still, it's reassuring to learn that a study by a psychologist has concluded that multiracial juries are more deliberative than all-white panels. The study by professor Samuel R. Sommers of Tufts University should give impetus to a lonely campaign by a member of the U.S. Supreme Court to make it easier to impanel juries that are more reflective of the community. It seems obvious that adding African Americans to a jury will often bring a broader range of viewpoints to deliberations. The twist in the Sommers study - published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is that a jury that includes at least some African Americans changes the way white jurors even think about the case, at least when the defendant is black. Sommers' experiment, which involved a mock trial of an African American man on charges of sexual assault, also tested the effect of asking jurors if they harbored racial prejudices against the defendant. Sommers found that 47% of jurors who weren't asked about their racial attitudes voted to convict the defendant, compared with only 34% of those who were asked race-related questions. Still, it's Sommers' conclusion about the value of a diverse jury that is likely to reverberate. It has been 20 years since the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for lawyers to use so-called peremptory challenges - those requiring no stated reason - to exclude potential jurors because of their race. Unfortunately, as Justice Stephen G. Breyer has observed, prosecutors have been able to circumvent the decision by offering a nonracial reason, however trivial, for a peremptory challenge actually motivated by race. A prosecutor who wants to strike an African American from a jury will say it's not the man's skin color he finds bothersome - it's that he has a beard. Breyer took note of such absurdities in an opinion last year in the case of a Texas prisoner who was sentenced to death after prosecutors used peremptory challenges to remove 10 of 11 African Americans in the jury pool. Then he offered a simple solution: Abolish peremptory challenges, as courts in Britain have done. Lawyers could then exclude someone from a criminal jury only "for cause" - such as evidence of prejudice or ties to a witness or defendant. Peremptory challenges long have been criticized as a form of racial discrimination. If Sommers' study is correct, such challenges also make it less likely that jurors will work their hardest to arrive at the truth. (source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times) MONTANA: Hearing on execution date set Death-row inmate David Dawson has until May 12 to tell a Yellowstone County District Court judge whether he wants to be present when the judge signs an order setting his execution date. In an order issued Thursday, Judge Gregory Todd said Dawson is entitled by state law to be present when his execution date is set. Dawson has indicated recently in a letter to the judge that he does not wish to appear in person in court, but would prefer to make any necessary court appearances by two-way teleconference from the Montana State Prison. In the two-page order, Todd scheduled a hearing at 1:30 p.m. June 2 "for the purpose of informing the defendant of the date for his execution." Dawson must inform the judge before May 12 if he wishes to be present at the hearing. Todd said that if Dawson does waive his right to a hearing, he will set the execution date by written order. By state law, the execution date has to be set sometime between 20 and 90 days from the date the order is signed. Dawson has been fighting a legal battle for two years to end his appeals and have his death sentence carried out for the 1986 triple slaying of David and Monica Rodstein and their 11-year-old son, Andrew, at a Billings hotel. A federal judge and the Montana Supreme Court have recently agreed to dismiss Dawson's appeals and allow the execution to be conducted. Dawson, 48, would be the 1st Montana inmate executed since Terry Allen Langford was put to death by lethal injection at the state prison in Deer Lodge in 1998. Langford was executed after 9 years on death row for the 1988 murders of Ned and Celene Blackwood in Ovando. Douglas McKenzie Jr. died by lethal injection in May 1995 for the murder of Conrad schoolteacher Lana Harding. His execution was the 1st in the state since 1943. (source: Billings Gazette) WYOMING: Suspended cop will stand trial for murder of wife Carli Ann Dennis confided to her supervisor at Luzerne Countys 911 center last August that her police officer husband, Jeff, threatened to shoot her and make it appear as a suicide. 6 months later, prosecutors allege Jeff Dennis, 35, fatally shot his 30-year-old wife in retaliation for an affair with Robert Bomboy, a co-worker at 911. Prosecutors suspect Jeff Dennis shot his wife while she slept in their Ninth Street, Wyoming, home on Feb. 27. He told friends and co-workers she shot herself. "We're going to have experts testify at the trial that her wounds were inconsistent with his statements," Luzerne County First Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Carroll said after a preliminary hearing on Thursday. During the nearly three-hour hearing before West Pittston District Judge Joseph Carmody, 911 supervisor John Emmett said Carli Dennis told him that Jeff Dennis threatened to shoot her. Emmett said Carli Dennis made the remark last August when she requested to be put on 3rd shift at the 911 center. Carli Dennis was a 911 emergency dispatcher. Jeff Dennis has been suspended from the Dallas Township Police Department. "She said Jeff had bruised her," Emmett testified. "She said he threatened to shoot her and make it look like she did it." Jeff Dennis faces trial on a single count of criminal homicide for the shooting. On Thursday, Carmody sent the charge to Luzerne County Court for trial. Jeff Dennis was arrested March 10 after Paul Kish, a blood spatter expert, said the fatal shooting did not occur as Jeff Dennis described. County Lt. Det. Gary Sworen said Kish found heavy blood spatter patterns on the shirt Jeff Dennis was wearing when Carli Dennis was shot with a .9 mm handgun. Sworen said the investigation determined Jeff Dennis was standing between the bed and a dresser. There was blood spatter on both ends of the dresser but not the middle where Jeff was standing, Sworen said. "There was high velocity spatter on the front of the (Jeff Dennis) shirt," Sworen testified. Dennis' defense lawyers, Ferris Webby and William Ruzzo, said the forthcoming trial is going to be a "forensic type" of trial featuring experts trained in blood spatter patterns. Webby said Jeff Dennis is "devastated" and is living a "nightmare" since his wife died. Jeff Dennis is claiming his wife shot herself. Wyoming police Officer Ken Karnes said Jeff Dennis indicated that he was standing in front of a closet with his back turned to Carli when the shot was fired. And paramedic Mark Watkievicz said Jeff Dennis told him that Jeff was sitting on the foot of the bed bending over to tie shoes when the shot was fired. Carroll said Jeff Dennis' statements are inconsistent with his position in the bedroom when Carli was shot. Rebecca Smith, Carli Dennis friend, testified that Jeff Dennis found out about Carlis affair with Bomboy. Smith said Jeff Dennis told her that he had worked things out with Carli and the alleged affair made their marriage "stronger." Adam John Burke, a co-worker at 911, said he knew about Carlis affair and her problems with Jeff. Burke said he was at work on Feb. 27 when he called Carli at her home at about 3:30 a.m. Burke said Carli told him that Jeff Dennis had given her a "choice" to decide to resign from 911 or end the marriage. Carli was to make up her mind by 11 a.m. on Feb. 27, Burke said. Karnes said he was dispatched to the Dennis' home at 9:43 a.m. Jeff Dennis remains jailed at the county correctional facility without bail. Carroll said a decision has not been made whether to seek the death penalty for Jeff Dennis. (source: Citizen Voice)
