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Berghuis v. Smith

Docket No. Op. Below Argument Opinion Vote Author Term
08-1402 6th Cir. - Jan 20, 2010
Mar 30, 2010 9-0 Ginsburg OT 2009

Holding: Defendants have the right to a trial by a jury selected from a fair cross-section of the community. In this case, in which an African-American man convicted by an all-white jury selected from a pool that contained a very small percentage of African Americans, the Court held that the underrepresentation of African-Americans in the jury pool was not serious enough to warrant overturning the conviction, and that there was not enough evidence of systematic exclusion of black jurors from the pool.

Judgment: Reversed and remanded, 9-0, in an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on March 30, 2010. Justice Thomas filed a concurring opinion.

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