New trial sought over mostly white jury pool

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Attorneys representing two men convicted of robbery, weapons and drug charges, are seeking a new trial because of the makeup of the jury pool at their federal trial in February and March.

Michael Witmer, the attorney for Matthew Nix, of Rochester, and Robert Wood, who represents Earl McCoy, of Brooklyn, claim that only three of the prospective jurors in the case were African-American.

Nix and McCoy are African-American and the defense claims that only one of the three prospective jurors who were African-American were qualified to serve.

One of the three was dismissed after the U.S. Attorney’s office discovered he had a felony record. And, after the jury reached a guilty verdict, it was discovered that James Bradford Jr., an African-American man on the jury, had a felony conviction and should not have been allowed to serve.

The defense asked for a new trial because Bradford was on the jury. A hearing was held last month on that issue where Bradford testified that he didn’t mention his record on a questionnaire or during voir dire because he didn’t remember it or didn’t understand the significance.

The attorneys in the case are scheduled to submit further written arguments and U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford is expected to decide the motion regarding Bradford in August.

“The purpose of the jury is to ensure that the verdict reflects the voice of the community, and the jury cannot serve that purpose if distinctive groups in the community are left out of the jury pool,” Witmer wrote in his motion.

Witmer’s motion notes that U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny dismissed a 56-person jury pool last month because it included no African-American members. The defendant in the case, Michael Jones, is African-American.

“We moved to strike the venire panel because there was no minorities of any sort in the prospective panel, let alone African-Americans,” said Federal Public Defender Fonda Dawn Kubiak.

Skretny called the lack of minorities in the jury pool “a statistical anomaly” that had never happened before in his 27 years on the bench.

“The intent and spirit of the Sixth Amendment is that a criminal defendant, faced with possible loss of liberty, be judged by a jury of his peers,” Skretney said in issuing his decision to excuse the jury pool on June 13.

“As an exercise of my judicial discretion, I will not permit an apparition such as what occurred this morning to detract from the fundamental right,” he said.

Jury selection in the Michael Jones case with a new pool is scheduled to start on Tuesday.