The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether an assault case should have been dismissed because jurors made racially inflammatory comments about the defendant, who is a member of Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and resident of the Ute White Mesa Reservation. The man was found guilty last year of assaulting a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer.
On appeal a federal judge dismissed the case because, he said, statements made by two jurors during the deliberation phase of the case indicated they had "failed to honestly answer a material question during 'voir dire."
During deliberations, a juror stated in an affidavit, the jury foreman said "that he used to live on, or maybe he lived by an Indian reservation. He then stated 'when Indians get alcohol, they all get drunk' and then added when they do get drunk, they get wild or violent or something to that effect." In another statement given to a defense investigator, a juror said that "at least two other jurors agreed with the foreman about Indians and drinking." Read more about it here.
WOW! If it were a jury about, say, a black man slapping his wife around, and someone said, "Oh black men tend to treat their women that way...I used to date a black man and I've seen it lots of times"...The case would be dismissed and we all know it!!! Major mistrial IMO.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe if it were a mexican in a car-theft case...and someone in the jury said "Oh, I lived in a mexican neighborhood, and, yeah...you have to watch your cars 'cause those mexicans steal..." Do you think there wouldn't be an uproar about that?
But, you know...when Cheyney and Regan (in the 80's) characterized reservations as "breeding grounds for alcoholism, drug abuse and prostitution"...no wonder we see cases such as this...anyone can say anything about Indians, but man, you better not sneeze wrong at some of the other races