bugscufle
01-10-2008, 10:14 PM
It is against the law to strike a juror because of race or gender, but the U.S. Supreme Court has never held that it is illegal to strike a juror because of religion, said Mark Curriden, a Dallas attorney who has written books on jury selection.
Republican district attorney candidate Kelly Siegler told a judge last year that members of Houston's Lakewood Church are "screwballs and nuts" and that she works to keep them off of juries.
Siegler made the comment while defending herself from a defense attorney's suggestion that she struck a man from the jury pool in a capital murder case because he is black. It wasn't the man's race that prompted Siegler to eliminate the man from the jury pool, she said. It was the fact that he attends Joel Osteen's megachurch.
According to the transcript, state District Judge Belinda Hill asked why she struck the potential juror.
"To start with," Siegler said, "he's a member of Lakewood Church. And we have had a running agreement — my partner Luci Davidson and I have, since we started — that people who go to Lakewood are screwballs and nuts," Siegler told the judge. "I'm very familiar with that church. We try our hardest not to put anybody who goes to Lakewood regularly on any jury, ... That's one reason that scared me about the man."
Siegler gave other reasons why she didn't want him on the jury, including his membership in the NAACP, a group that opposes the death penalty.
Siegler said she has never been to Lakewood and based her opinion about its members' stance on the death penalty on things she heard about the church.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5445758.html
Republican district attorney candidate Kelly Siegler told a judge last year that members of Houston's Lakewood Church are "screwballs and nuts" and that she works to keep them off of juries.
Siegler made the comment while defending herself from a defense attorney's suggestion that she struck a man from the jury pool in a capital murder case because he is black. It wasn't the man's race that prompted Siegler to eliminate the man from the jury pool, she said. It was the fact that he attends Joel Osteen's megachurch.
According to the transcript, state District Judge Belinda Hill asked why she struck the potential juror.
"To start with," Siegler said, "he's a member of Lakewood Church. And we have had a running agreement — my partner Luci Davidson and I have, since we started — that people who go to Lakewood are screwballs and nuts," Siegler told the judge. "I'm very familiar with that church. We try our hardest not to put anybody who goes to Lakewood regularly on any jury, ... That's one reason that scared me about the man."
Siegler gave other reasons why she didn't want him on the jury, including his membership in the NAACP, a group that opposes the death penalty.
Siegler said she has never been to Lakewood and based her opinion about its members' stance on the death penalty on things she heard about the church.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5445758.html