A jury was being chosen for a murder trial nearly three decades ago in California. The state was seeking a death sentence for Ernest Dykes, who had been charged with killing a 9-year-old boy during a robbery in Oakland.
Weighing who should be struck from the jury pool and who should be kept, a prosecutor made notes about a prospective juror:
“I liked him better than any other Jew but no way.”
Other notes about prospective jurors bore evidence of similar prejudice:
“Banker. Jew?” read one.
“Jew? Yes,” read another.
An inquiry, which may involve as many as 35 cases from as far back as 1977, is just getting underway. But the district attorney’s office says it has already found evidence that the discriminatory practice was widespread for decades and involved numerous prosecutors.
@ProgressiveFredDemocrat2wks2W
The U.S. is one of the few civilized nations with capital punishment on the books. Why is that? How long does the average death row inmate stay alive while everything works it's way through costly and lengthly appeals? How many wrongfully convicted inmates get exonerated? Just throw away the key. Save a lot of money and effort. And mistakes can be fixed.
Abolishing the death penalty would go a long way to stopping this practice.
@Pl4tformSeafowlGreen2wks2W
OK, this is antisemitism. Protesting over indiscriminate disregard for the welfare if Palestinian civilians is not.
The type of antisemitism described in this article always shocks me when I see it. It seems so retro. Backwards. Of another era. But they're out there.
While the anti-Semitic furor de jour is coming from the Far Left, let us not forget that Jews are often discriminated against in right-wing circles for being too liberal.
Hard to escape anti-Semitism these days. What a commentary on our times.
@WholesomeOwlLibertarian2wks2W
I’m Quaker. Clearly against the death penalty as are many of my Friends. But no-one in a capital trial will ever get any of us on their jury. You have to affirm that you could support the death penalty, which I can’t. So am I not a peer? I’ve been kicked of juries because I affirm, but not swear, that I will do a proper job. So yes, prosecutors try to get rid of jurors who have less punitive views. This isn’t new. If anything, the exclusion of Jewish jurors speaks well of Jews. But it should never happen.
So the prosectors not only blew up their cases, but they managed to engage in Civil Rights violations against both the potential jurors and the defendant. That is quite the feat.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
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