“Can you set aside your belief and listen to all the facts of the case?”
Through humor and her experiences as a defense attorney and a prosecutor, Attorney Hope Whitehead helped to “rehabilitate” participants as jurors at the recent Black Jurors Matter teach-in. Rehabilitation is a processed used by attorneys and prosecutors to take a prospective juror who has expressed a bias or strong feeling and bring them to a place of “fairness.” We now know that jury selection is more accurately jury deselection. Jurors can be struck because of various reasons and prejudiced opinions expressed during questioning aka voire dire. We left the teach-in fully informed and ready for jury duty. Attorney Whitehead gave us an assignment of educating ten more people.
The teach-in is part of OBS’ Black Jurors Matter Campaign. Teach-ins are being held across the metro area to educate African Americans on the importance of jury duty and to give insights on the jury process. Stay tuned for future teach-ins.