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Excluding Juror Because of Clergy Spouse Held Proper

By Howard Friedman

In Green v. Prosper, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18358 (CD CA, Feb. 28, 2008), a California federal district judge in a brief opinion adopted the report and recommendation of a federal magistrate judge denying a habeas corpus petition by a convicted felon who had unsuccessfully challenged his robbery conviction in state court. Defendant Demetrious Green claimed that the prosecution had improperly used one of its peremptory challenges to exclude the wife of a clergyman as a juror. The magistrate's opinion (2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96738) concluded that this did not amount to improper religious discrimination, saying: "the occupation of the potential juror's husband as a member of the clergy does not implicate the potential juror's religious beliefs and it is a credible non-racial basis to exercise a peremptory challenge."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).