We have been studying the impact of race on jury selection in trials for more than a decade.

 

Last month, our research and expert testimony were cited as a defining factor in the successful outcome of a far-reaching case in North Carolina.

On Feb. 7, 2025, Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons found that race played a key role in the death penalty trial of Hasson Bacote. The court concluded that both the selection of the defendant’s jury and the decision to sentence him to death was influenced by the fact that Mr. Bacote is a Black man. The court also found that racial discrimination extends beyond Mr. Bacote’s case, tainting all death sentences in Johnston County and the prosecutorial district that includes two other NC counties. (Read the judge’s order here.)

We have been working with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation even before the passage the North Carolina Racial Justice Act in 2009.  When it passed, we were asked to design and conduct studies specific to that state’s new law.

Our initial jury selection database contained information on the exercise of peremptory challenges in the selection of every jury that had heard a case relating to more than 159 death row defendants. Hasson Bacote was among those prisoners.  Many others have claims pending. We coded detailed information on randomly selected sample of 25 percent of more than 7,400 people considered for jury duty on these cases.

This research supported Racial Justice Act claims for all 159 people facing death sentences in 2010.  Courts in 2011 and 2012 found violations of the Racial Justice Act based in part on this research, and re-sentenced four people to life without parole. Over the years, we have updated the database with new capital cases.

In the past 16 years, some 35 MSU Law alumni have worked with us on our jury and race research.  We love working with students and recent graduates on this ongoing work.  Spartan lawyers have also helped with similar pro bono research in other states including Arkansas, Arizona, Mississippi, Ohio, and South Carolina in recent years.

Separate but related is a package of jury reform bills pending in the State of Michigan’s House of Representatives to which we contributed. The legislation aims to make juries more inclusive by, among other things, expanding the number of eligible jurors, eliminating the exclusion of people convicted of a felony, standardizing questionnaires, and adopting a one-step jury qualification.

Editor's note: The National Registry of Exonerations, of which Professor O’Brien is editor, will publish its annual report on April 1, 2025. Later this year, it will have a new website. The Registry has documented the exonerations of 3,659 defendants who have collectively lost some 32,750 years of their lives to prison.

By Barbara O’Brien and Catherine Grosso