Jones v. Georgia
Decision Date | 16 October 1967 |
Docket Number | No. 174,M,174 |
Citation | 19 L.Ed.2d 25,88 S.Ct. 4,389 U.S. 24 |
Parties | Alexander David JONES v. GEORGIA. isc |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Wilbur D. Owens, Jr., for petitioner.
Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen. of Georgia, G. Ernest Tidwell, Executive Asst. Atty. Gen., and Marion O. Gordon, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
The motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and the petition for a writ of certiorari are granted.
Petitioner appealed his conviction for murder to the Georgia Supreme Court where he sought reversal on the ground, among others, that the evidence relevant to his claim of systematic exclusion of Negroes from the grand and petit juries drawn in the county established a prima facie case of the denial of equal protection within our decision in Whitus v. State of Georgia, 385 U.S. 545, 87 S.Ct. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599.* The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the conviction stating that Whitus was distinguishable because 223 Ga. 157, 162, 154 S.E.2d 228, 232.
We hold that the burden upon the State to explain 'the disparity between the percentage of Negroes on the tax digest and those on the venires,' Whitus, supra, 385 U.S. at 552, 87 S.Ct. at 647, was not met by the Georgia Supreme Court's reliance on the stated presumptions. See Arnold v. North Carolina, 376 U.S. 773, 84 S.Ct. 1032, 12 L.Ed.2d 77; Eubanks v. State of Louisiana, 356 U.S. 584, 78 S.Ct. 970, 2 L.Ed.2d 991; Williams v. State of Georgia, 349 U.S. 375, 75 S.Ct. 814, 99 L.Ed. 1161; Avery v. State of Georgia, 345 U.S. 559, 73 S.Ct. 891, 97 L.Ed. 1244; Cassell v. State of Texas, 339 U.S. 282, 70 S.Ct. 629, 94 L.Ed. 839; Norris v. State of Alabama, 294 U.S. 587, 55 S.Ct. 579, 79 L.Ed. 1074. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Georgia Supreme Court and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with our opinion.
It is so ordered.
Reversed and remanded.
* The record supports the following comparison of the salient facts in Whitus and in petitioner's case:
Whitus Petitioner's case
Over 21 population 42.6% Negro men 30.7% Negro
Jury Commissioners White (apparently) White
Source of juror Tax Digests separated 3 Tax Digests, two of
names and identified as to race which separated and
identified as to race
Taxpayers...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Montiel v. Chappell
...tax rolls which required blacks to file on yellow paper and whites on white paper. Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545(1967); Jones v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 24 (1967); Sims v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 404 (1967). Similarly, a 16% disparity combined with selection process which identified race on the jury ......
-
Prieto v. Commonwealth
...disparity); Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 486–87 & n. 7, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977) (40% absolute disparity); Jones v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 24, 24 n. *, 88 S.Ct. 4, 19 L.Ed.2d 25 (1967) (14.7% absolute disparity). What is more, courts have upheld jury selection procedures with ......
-
Peters v. Kiff 8212 5078
... ... from the grand jury that indicted him and the petit jury that ... convicted him of burglary in the Superior Court of Muscogee ... County, Georgia. In consequence he contends that his conviction is ... invalid under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the ... Fourteenth Amendment ... See ... Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 171—174, 89 S.Ct. 961, ... 965—967, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969); cf. Jones v. United States, 362 ... U.S. 257, 261, 80 S.Ct. 725, 731, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960) ... The opinions in support of the majority position do not ... ...
-
Tollett v. Henderson 8212 95
...625, 92 S.Ct. 1221, 31 L.Ed.2d 536 (1972); Sims v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 404, 88 S.Ct. 523, 19 L.Ed.2d 634 (1967); Jones v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 24, 88 S.Ct. 4, 19 L.Ed.2d 25 (1967); Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545, 87 S.Ct. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599 (1967); Coleman v. Alabama, 377 U.S. 129, 84 S.Ct. 11......
-
Batson's Grand Jury DNA
...(internal quotation marks omitted). 95. See, e.g. , Turner v. Fouche, 396 U.S. 346 (1970) (challenging grand jury); Jones v. Georgia, 389 U.S. 24 (1967) (challenging grand and petit jury); Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545 (1967) (challenging grand and petit jury). 96. Alexander v. Louisiana,......