Judge Olu Stevens
BALTIMORE,
MD — Attorneys with the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People have written to the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission
in support of Judge Olu Stevens, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge
who has been suspended after refusing to allow jurors to be selected
from nearly all-white jury panels in criminal cases in Louisville.
Judge Olu Stevens is scheduled to appear before the commission on Aug.
8, 2016.
In the letter,
the NAACP maintains that racial and ethnic diversity on juries
considering criminal cases is of critical importance in our multi-racial
and multi-ethnic society, as jurors from different backgrounds often
bring different perspectives to the evidence presented to them in
court.
NAACP has both submitted a letter to the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission and,
along with the National Bar Association, submitted an amicus curiae
brief to the Kentucky Supreme Court in support of Judge Stevens.
In
presiding over jury selection in criminal cases assigned to him, the
NAACP believes Judge Stevens has exercised his judicial discretion in
determining that the jury panels in those cases were not representative
of the racial diversity in the community of Louisville. He dismissed
nearly all-white jury panels in favor of panels that were more
reflective of the diversity within the Louisville community, and the
petit juries were ultimately selected from those panels.
“This
is an issue of great importance for the NAACP,” said Cornell William
Brooks, NAACP President and CEO. “Jury diversity is critical to
ensuring defendants, and the public at large, that the criminal justice
system is capable of being impartial and fair to all persons.”
When
his actions were challenged by the Commonwealth’s Attorney, Judge
Stevens made public statements on social media and elsewhere emphasizing
the critical importance of ensuring racial diversity on jury panels in
criminal cases involving African-American defendants, and questioning
the motives of the Commonwealth’s Attorney in challenging the steps
taken by Judge Stevens to ensure such diversity. For these actions,
Judge Stevens was suspended from his seat on the bench in April pending a
hearing before the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission next week.
The
NAACP strongly supports Judge Stevens’ efforts to ensure that the guilt
or innocence of defendants in criminal cases – especially
African-American defendants – is determined by juries that are broadly
representative of the local community. The NAACP also maintains that
Judge Stevens’ statements on matters of substantial public concern in
his courtroom are supported by the First Amendment, and do not warrant
disciplinary action.
In January 2016, the NAACP, along with the National Bar Association,
filed an amicus brief in the Kentucky Supreme Court in the matter of
Commonwealth of Kentucky v. James Doss, one of the criminal cases in
which Judge Stevens dismissed a nearly all-white jury panel. In that
case, the jury acquitted the defendant of the crime charged.
Judge Stevens’ case will be heard by the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission on August 8, 2016.
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