JUNKING THE JURY
by Mumia Abu-Jamal, M.A.
Column Written 7/8/01 All Rights Reserved
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed...." -- U.S. Constitution, 6th Amendment
It's been almost two decades since a Philadelphia jury sentenced Donald Hardcastle to death.
It was a cold, wintry December day in 1982 when a jury convicted him of two counts of murder, arson, and burglary.
Hardcastle's "jury" was one where almost every Black person was purged from the panel by the Philadelphia DA's office. The prosecutor knocked off 12 Black potential jurors, of the 15 challenges used during his trial. Hardcastle went to the lower courts twice on PCRA filings, and to three state appellate courts (or two such courts, three different times), and got spit on every time.
When he went to these courts, he argued mostly one thing: the improper, and racially discriminatory removal of African-Americans from the jury in his case. He based this upon a case known as Batson v. Kentucky, a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986, which determined that the state's removal of the jurors on the basis of race violated the U.S. Constitution. For 15 years after Batson, Hardcastle remained under a death sentence, with every court he went before denying all of his arguments.
Five different times. Nineteen judges.
All of them sniffed imperiously at his Batson claim, and wrote opinions explaining why he was wrong, and why the DA's office was right.
In so doing, they not only spit on Donald's so-called "rights" to a fair trial, but they also spit on the alleged "rights" of 12 African-American "citizens" who were judged unworthy to sit on juries because they were black.
Five different times. Nineteen judges.
How is it possible for so many judges to review a case and deny what was patently obvious?
It's done every day, in every jurisdiction in America.
Recently, a federal judge in Philadelphia reviewed the case, and concluded that the state court's reasoning was "contrary" to, or an "unreasonable application" of, the rule of Batson.
The Hardcastle decision found that the Commonwealth engaged in "intentional discrimination" regarding half of the 12 jurors who were removed. In a relatively brief opinion written by Judge John R. Padova, the prosecutor's office was found to have engaged in "intentional discrimination":
The Court also finds as fact based on the record that the prosecutor engaged in intentional discrimination with respect to the two jurors for whom no record-based potential reasons were found, Kim Richards and Lisa Stewart. Lisa Stewart testified that she was a housewife with one child living in West Philadelphia, and that she would follow the law and weigh the evidence fairly. Several white female jurors who the prosecutor explicitly found acceptable also testified to being home- makers with children and living in Philadelphia. Kim Richards testified that she was a single, 26-year-old college graduate who lived in Overbrook and worked as a secretary for an extermination business. The prosecutor struck Richards while retaining a single 25-year-old white female juror who had attended two years of college and worked as an accountant for an insurance company. The record reveals no credible basis other than race for distinguishing between Stewart or Richards and their respective white counterparts.
Five different times. Nineteen judges.
Fifteen years after the Batson decision, that every other judge ignored, shredded, or treated like toilet paper.
What kind of justice is that?
After almost 20 years on Death Row, Hardcastle will finally get a chance to be tried by a "fair and impartial" jury.
Text © copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.International Action Center
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