A committee of jury system is designed to provide verdict on matters submitted to court. Justice and fairness are the major obligations of the bench jurors. The panel aims to protect citizens against unfair rulings and therefore, promote integrity (Hutchinson, 2017). However, there has been a need to reform this crucial arm of the United States government in terms of their racial composition. Additionally, states are not obligated to use racially mixed bench of judges. This has resulted in some policymakers suggesting using racial criteria in promoting racial diversity in American juries.
Justification of the reforms to state legislature is a good idea since there has been a concerted effort of removing majority of similar race juries from the judiciary system (Donnelly, 2017). This move is aimed to ensure that a larger proportion of racial minorities reserves a certain number of seats. The reason is that such a system will help eradicate racial injustice in the administration of law. Moreover, it will eradicate biasness in judicial decisions, even though it may cause unintentional discrimination (Hutchinson, 2017). Increasing the number of minority jurors will reduce the rate of systemic racial discrimination by the judiciary system.
The opposing view is that racial discrimination against minorities is not a result of the racial composition of the bench of jurors; it is due to contextual bias (Donnelly, 2017). Therefore, resolving the problem by having more minority jurors will not make any significant changes. Additionally, the suggested approach is likely to amount to underscoring the roles of qualified applicants during jury selection.
The ideas presented by the pro reformists are all excellent; however, the change of the composition of judges is the best approach to handling the problem of racial profiling in courts. The selection process eliminates systemic racial discrimination when the jury is making decisions.
References
Donnelly, E. A. (2017). The politics of racial disparity reform: Racial inequality and criminal justice policymaking in the states. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 42(1), 1-27.
Hutchinson, D. L. (2017). Undignified: The Supreme Court, racial justice, and dignity claims. University of Florida Levin College of Law.