State v. Rivers

This court case is completed

Paul Rivers, a Black man charged in a criminal case, was convicted at trial following the empaneling of a jury panel without any Black potential jurors. Mr. Rivers offered evidence of historic exclusion and consistent underrepresentation of Black jurors in King County. This amicus brief argues that under the Washington Constitution, which affords greater protection of the right to a jury trial than the Sixth Amendment, evidence of underrepresentation of a distinctive group in the jury pool sufficiently establishes a fair cross section claim.