FayObserver.com - Racial Justice Act hearing: Political scientist says juror ideology, not racism, can explain study's results

FayObserver.com - Racial Justice Act hearing: Political scientist says juror ideology, not racism, can explain study's results

"A political scientist testified at the Robinson Racial Justice Act hearing Monday that juror ideology, not racism, can explain the results of a statistical study that said local and North Carolina prosecutors have dismissed black jurors more frequently than whites from capital murder trials.

Polls repeatedly have found that black Americans are likely to be politically liberal, oppose the death penalty and mistrust the criminal justice system more than whites and other racial groups, said Christopher Cronin of the Methodist University political science department, in testimony for the prosecution.

There has been previous prosecution testimony that black jurors cited in the statistical study were peremptorily dismissed not because of their race, but because they expressed reservations about the death penalty, had criminal records or other factors that made them undesirable to the prosecution.

Lawyers for defendant Marcus Reymond Robinson contend that the stated reasons are nothing more than a pretense attempting to hide an underlying racism.

Robinson, who is black, is on death row for the 1991 murder of Erik Tornblom, who was white. Now Robinson is attempting to use the Racial Justice Act of 2009 to prove there was racism in the selection of his jury and in the criminal justice system in general in capital murder trials.

If he wins his claim, Robinson will have his sentence converted to life in prison without parole. His lawyers are using a statistical study, by researchers from Michigan State University, that said prosecutors since 1990 have been more than twice as likely to dismiss otherwise qualified black potential jurors than non-black jurors. They say it shows racism in the selection of his jury, which had nine whites, two blacks and one American Indian.

Cronin testified that there is an inherent risk in such studies that attempt to ferret out racism. "It's difficult to pin that down," he said. The study may ascribe the prosecutors' juror strikes to being race-based when they are based on other facts, he said.

"Race as a variable is one of the variables, and may simply indicate a minority population that has a cultural and political ideology that would make it less likely to be favored by the majority population, which is represented by the state," Cronin said. "And the state's interest is to represent that majority population and its intent for laws, punishment, etc."

Race "is sometimes simply a placeholder for a minority populations divergent political opinions," he said.

In cross-examination from Robinson lawyer James Ferguson II, Cronin said it is wrong to assume that every black person would have the same opinion on the death penalty or any other issue.

"I think you can make generalizations, but to make assumptions, that would be dangerous," Cronin said."