- [Vivian] The juror system is where the racist stuff goes down.

- [Jason] Don't get me started (laughs) like on that jury stuff.

- [Otis] Most Black people are very wary of jury and the jury selection process.

- [Resmaa] Law-abiding Black people do not get called to get on a jury.

- [Artika] How can we have racial justice when I'm the only person of color in this room?

(upbeat music) - [Kyeland] Hey y'all.

Newsfeeds are blowing up over jury selection for the trial of Derek Chauvin.

The world's watching the Hennepin County courthouse where attorneys from both sides fight for jurors to sell their case to.

For a lot of white Minnesotans, juries can be inconvenient, yet fair and impartial.

But for Black and Brown people like you and me, a jury is more complex than that, shaped by a long history of racism, exclusion, and bias.

So here's the question.

How does the jury system work and how does it work against us?

- Well, with the jury and any trial, you have a promise from the sixth amendment to have, you know, a speedy and a public trial by an impartial jury of your peers, is what we oftentimes frame it as.

So when we think about juries and what's their function and role, I think they play a significant role based upon our history, the foundational tenants of our constitution, of having the opportunity to have your peers help to, in that fair and balanced principles of impartiality, look at the facts and help to determine the final, the final determination in a particular case.

So how does that relate to race and looking at it through a racial justice lens in particular?

Oftentimes the challenge is two-fold: the jury pool and the jury selection process.

That jury pool, that initial invitation to activate that civic duty, is based upon the records of me either being registered to vote, based upon my driver's license records or my state ID.

- And both of those issues are problematic or they're barriers for a lot of Black people.

And you look at the historical depth that we've gone through with this country to do voter suppression.

And even today, as we are looking at states around the union revisit voter repression, trying to eliminate people's ability.

And so right away, when you think about that pool that we are selected from, and that's where they sell driver's license renewal, that's another historical barrier in the communities of color, even to the extreme of people don't want to drive because of the habitual nature of being stopped and frisked.

- My wife just said to me two days ago (laughs) she said, "I've been born and raised on the North side of Minneapolis and my ass ain't never been asked to be on a jury.

I'm 56 years old and I ain't never been asked to be on a jury."

How does that even happen?

- I mean, I've been a registered voter since 1972 and I'm yet to be called.

- I mean, I can think of examples in my immediate family, but I also can think about the fact that they're probably uniquely situated in the sense of yours truly.

- I've been called.

But wouldn't you know, after all of this, I was sick and couldn't go.

So I was just beside myself.

- [Kyeland] And let's not forget the new Jim Crow in America: the mass incarceration of people of color.

- Now, if we get it and take it a step further and take in account mass incarceration, another challenge starts to emerge as well.

People of color are not going to be in the voting pool and that registration at the same rate because of not having the ability to have access to the ballot box if you're on any terms of probation or parole in Minnesota, but in other states, it could be a lifetime ban simply for being a felon.

- I mean, I will probably never serve on a jury.

You know what I mean?

Like ever in my life.

When you convicted or been, you know, taken through the criminal punishment system, you're not eligible to be a juror.

And, you know, I think it just shows that even jury selection is rooted in bias.

- If we are saying representation matters, if we're saying equal justice under the law, we have to make sure that that jury pool represents the true landscape of Minnesota.

- [Kyeland] And that's just to get called for jury service.

Getting to serve on a jury is a whole other thing.

Attorneys use an interrogation process called "voir dire" to expose hidden biases in each juror.

And just as reading tests excluded us from voting, voir dire is used to exclude us from serving on juries.

- I had never heard of voir dire.

So this was a real enlightenment for me, because it's the key way that Black people were kept off of juries.

Lawyers can ask you questions to see whether or not you are gonna be biased toward their client and if you should be struck for cause.

And what would happen is Black people would come up, when they did come up, if the defendant was a Black person and you came up you would get struck off just because you were Black.

- Who experiences some of those preemptive challenges?

Who's struck early and never gets a chance to participate?

And thinking about the Batson case and ensuring that people are not simply being struck because of the color of their skin.

And that they're not being limited with access to actually serve once they make it through that small pool up to the next step of jury selection.

- [Kyeland] Batson versus Kentucky was a huge Supreme Court decision that made it illegal to strike jurors because of their race.

It's been the law of the land since the 1980s, and it's improved the rate at which people like us can serve as jurors, but the system found other ways to make racism work today.

Using questions like, "What do you think about Black Lives Matter?"

- Voir dire is where the racist stuff goes down.

I mean, it's there, that's it.

I mean, that's the beginning of it.

It's whether you even get to participate in the process.

the questions that are asked to you can be embarrassing and stuff like, "Do you have any police relatives?"

And then they could get struck (laughs) if they did.

Or, "Have you ever had a disagreement with a police officer?"

And then you can get struck.

You know, so, and that's, most of us, a lot of us.

- I have to talked to other people about some of their experiences and most people that do have been weeded out during the interview process.

- I got interviewed, but I was too, you probably can tell by my voice that they wasn't gonna choose me to be (laughs).

- Sir, you are being excused from this jury.

- As soon as I started talking, they was like, "Nah, we gonna take Malcolm X off.

Give Malcolm X his Quran and let him keep moving."

(laughs) - [Kyeland] If we didn't laugh, we'd cry, right?

And beyond those biased jury pools and jury selection systems, there's our mistrust that Minnesotans of color will be not judged by a jury of our peers.

- I mean, the premise behind a jury is have a group of people that, of your peers, and I think it's hard for, talk to any Black American, to feel that, that you really represent them, or that they see themselves.

- If I want a jury of my peers, you know, it's like I know who my peers are, and if I go in a courtroom and it's a bunch of middle aged white folks, man, a lot of them are not my peers.

A peer means you should be able to understand the context in which things happen in my community.

- I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be, as would be likely to happen in Minnesota, to be the only person of color, only Black person, and the defendant is a Black person.

And, you know, to hear all of the kind of discussion that might fly about Black people.

- This is structural.

Every institution participates in white body supremacy - The fact that we're one of the last large countries to use a juror system like we have says something.

- Before we can get to the jury pool, jury selection, I would like to see some early engagement with everyone, but in particular communities of color, on why jury service is a critical part of the pursuit of justice and how we play a key leadership role.

- [Kyeland] These systems are biased against us, but it doesn't have to stay that way.

Call your local jury office or councilperson if you've got something to say.

Make your voice be heard.

That's a right that's guaranteed to every citizen, no matter what the color of their skin.

Until next time, Peace and love.

- Most of the time Black people are not, don't get called for jury.

Law-abiding Black people do not get called to get on jury.

That's a problem with the algorithm, right?

I want to see the algorithm.

I want it, I want somebody, I want some Black people, and some Brown people and some Indigenous people and some Asian people, I want them to look at the algorithm and start to begin to tweak this damn thing.