Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
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Berghuis v. Smith, 559 U.S. 314 (Mar. 30, 2010)
The state supreme court did not unreasonably apply clearly established federal law with respect to the defendant’s claim that the method of jury selection violated his sixth amendment right to be tried by an impartial jury drawn from sources reflecting a fair cross-section of the community. The state supreme court assumed that African-Americans were underrepresented in venires from which juries were selected but went on to conclude that the defendant had not shown the third prong of the Duren prima facie case for fair cross section claims: that the underrepresentation was due to systemic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process. The Court expressly declined to address the methods or methods by which underrepresentation is appropriately measured. For a more detailed discussion of this case, see the blog post.