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 BOSTON (AP) - For years, defense attorneys have complained that seating a jury in federal court in Boston usually yields one of two panels: all-white or almost all-white. After several failed challenges to the system, a judge hearing the federal death penalty case of two black men has issued a ruling that could change things.
Judge Nancy Gertner ordered court administrators to send additional summonses to certain zip codes when mailings are returned as undeliverable. In her ruling last month, Gertner said targeting certain zip codes may increase the likelihood that black jurors will be in the pool for the trial of Darryl Green and Branden Morris, who are charged in the 2001 gang killing of Terrell Gethers.
Without such a change, Gertner said an all-white or largely white jury will likely decide not only their guilt or innocence, but whether they live or die.
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