Christian Message Boards: Clergy can be barred from juries

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Posted by knowHim (Member # 8) on :

Clergy can be barred from juries, say courts
Robert Cook, pastor of the Joy of Faith Christian Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, was excluded from a jury in a March 2001 battery case. He's black, and the Supreme Court has held that lawyers can't use race to pick juries. But while race is off-limits, religion apparently isn't. "We do know that pastors for the most part and ministers and rabbis have a tendency to be sympathetic," said Judge Howard C. Berman.

Other courts have agreed, The New York Times reported yesterday. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that "concern that ministers are uniquely forgiving" is legitimate, and the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals similarly approved a minister's exclusion from a jury, saying, "perhaps she would have a higher threshold of reasonable doubt."

"That doesn't make any sense," Cook reponsds. "I'm harder than most…Look, a criminal is a criminal. I'm not overly hard or overly easy."

The Times quotes from some who say stereotyping ministers is legally problematic, and from others who say it's just a smokescreen to continue racial preferences. "There are plenty of ministers who have hearts of stone," said Nova Southeastern University law professor Bruce Rogow. "If you had a white, Christian, fundamentalist minister, I don't think he would have been excluded."

The New York Times doesn't mention that in many jurisdictions, clergy are among the only professionals who can claim a free pass from serving on juries.

Posted by Waterdog (Member # 24) on :

quote:
Originally posted by knowHim:
"I'm harder than most…I'm not overly hard or overly easy."

Lol...Ok, is he harder than most or not? [Bang Head]