Encouraging jurors to be candid is one reason most states protect jurors from testifying in court later about their deliberations. But others worried that if the court allowed an inquiry into racial bias in jury deliberations, it would have to permit challenges based on expressions of other sorts of prejudice. Allowing defendants to challenge convictions based on what was said during jury deliberations admittedly would make such appeals more likely. But jurisdictions that allow such inquiries in the case of possible racial bias don’t seem to have clogged the courts with them. As a general matter, the privacy of jury deliberations should be respected.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 15, 2016 12:00 UTC