How do courts consider race and ethnicity when it comes to juries for trials? Professor Suja Thomas was recently a guest on Illinois Public Media's The 21st, where she discussed a new ruling in Iowa, and the potential implications for Illinois.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled last month that defendants of color are now able to challenge all-white juries, giving defendants in Iowa a better chance of defending themselves from discrimination.
The ruling is the result of an appeal to a case in which an African American man in Iowa was convicted for harassing a neighbor. The jury in the case was all-white. Previously, such a racial disparity would likely not be enough to appeal the conviction.
As for Illinois, Thomas said that judges from 5 counties including Peoria are pushing for the jury pool minority percentage to equal the population percentage.
"In the future, I imagine the Supreme Court will decide how juries should be picked more specifically," she said.
Listen to Thomas' full segment on The 21st