Ethnic Bias in Jury Selection in Australia and New Zealand

The Underrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples on Canadian Jury Panels

“…It may also bring together people who live hundreds of kilometers from each other and have absolutely no common interest or sense of connectedness. These become important issues because how a community is defined may affect the composition of the jury pool and whether a jury is or is seen to be representative (Israel 2000).…”

“…Very little attention has been paid to the impact that these practices have had on Native American peoples though there have been some exceptions (e.g., Fukurai 1998), particularly in Alaska (Colt 1994;Conn 1995;King 1998). On the other hand, in Australia and New Zealand, researchers have examined both the nature of and the reasons for the underrepresentation of Indigenous people (e.g., Israel 1998;New Zealand. New Zealand Law Commission 2001).…”

Determinants and Consequences of Jury Racial Diversity: Empirical Findings, Implications, and Directions for Future Research

“…This helps explain some of the egregious problems with source list representativeness described by Abramson (2000), such as a district in North Dakota in which only 17% of eligible Native Americans living on reservations voted in an election, leading to only one such individual being summoned for jury duty that entire year. Similar problems have been identified in other countries: in New Zealand, for example, Maori are underenrolled on voter lists, contributing to their underrepresentation in jury pools (Israel, 1998; for Canadian examples, see Israel, 2003). Further problems with representativeness occur when these source lists are not updated frequently; in such instances, people who move often, such as renters, are often omitted (King, 1993b).…”

“…Though specific procedures vary by jurisdiction, in many states these voter lists are supplemented by other public records, such as those pertaining to driver's licenses, taxes, and public utilities (Boatright, 1998; Kairys, Kadane, & Lehoczky, 1977). The procedure for creating jury source lists varies by country as well: England and New Zealand make use of voter rolls, whereas procedures in Canada differ by province and are often left to the discretion of local jury administrators (see Granger, Charron, & Chumak, 1989; Israel, 1998; 2003; Lloyd‐Bostock & Thomas, 1999; Tanovich, Paciocco, & Skurka, 1997).…”

“…But these data are contemporary and provide at least one persuasive illustration that the jury racial composition problems evident in Talladega County in 1965 have not disappeared in the modern era. Furthermore, cross‐cultural analyses, discussed in more detail below, indicate that such lack of racial representation on juries is by no means an exclusively American problem (e.g., Israel, 1998, 2003).…”