Washington Supreme Court changes its opinion on race in juries

The Washington Supreme Court revised its previous stand on what it means to have a “jury of your peers” in a decision issued Thursday.

Race discrimination in jury selection violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, Justice Susan Owens states at the beginning of her simple-yet-dramatic opinion, which was signed by all her colleagues on the court.

Owens notes that previous rulings by the Washington Supreme Court fell short of the objective to remove racism from the jury selection process.

In 2010, a Black defendant appealed a trial court decision after a second potential Black juror was removed from the jury box in his trial for robbery, drug and firearm charges. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal at the time, but has now ordered Theodore R. Rhone’s case to be retried – 13 years after he made his appeal.

After the court swore in the jury, Rhone made the following statement: “I would like to have someone that represents my culture as well as your culture. To have this the way it is … seems unfair to me. It’s not a jury of my peers.”

Owens said Rhone was asking for “a bright line rule establishing a prima facie case of discrimination when the State peremptorily strikes the last member of a racially recognized group” from the potential jury pool. But the Court did not agree to adopt this rule in 2010.

The justices changed their minds in the years following because of all they have learned since then regarding the impact of implicit bias in jury selection, Owens wrote in her opinion.

The 2023 opinion was related to a different matter in Rhone’s case, but as Owens wrote, “We take this opportunity to revisit and correct that decision.”

“Given the unique factual and procedural history of this case and in the interest of justice, we recall our prior mandate, reverse Rhone’s convictions, and remand for a new trial,” she wrote.