Maurice Duncan Burks v. United States
DueProcess JusticiabilityDoctri
Whether the government's peremptory strike of a black female juror through a deliberately confusing question violates Batson v. Kentucky and whether forcing black defendants to sit separately from white attorneys violates due process
This case is about the effects of racial bias both deliberate and implicit in the trial of a young, black man whose trial was infused with constitutionally impermissible racial targeting eading to a verdict unworthy of trust. This case exposes uncomfortable truths that reveal an unconstitutional trial. The questions presented are: I. Whether it violates Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), for the government to begin its voir dire by targeting a young, black woman with a deliberately confusing question, not asked of any other juror, then using her lack of understanding the question as a pretext for exercising a peremptory strike against her? IL. Whether it violates Due Process for the court to force five, young, black defendants to sit in a row behind their almost exclusively white attorneys, presenting the jury with an image that the defendants were joined together and that counsel did not want their clients sitting with them? i