Lack of black jurors halts boxer’s trial

By Matt Pordum

Thursday, July 28, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

The bell didn't ring to start WBC lightweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s trial on Wednesday.

District Judge David Wall delayed the start of Mayweather's battery trial because none of the 50 potential jurors were black.

Wall said "out of the abundance of caution" he would have another 50-member jury pool come to court this morning to take part in jury selection.

Wall stressed he was not making his decision based on any evidence that a systematic exclusion of black jurors occurred, but instead to "protect the rights of Mr. Mayweather" in the face of such unusual circumstances.

Wall's decision came in response to a motion by Mayweather's lawyer, Richard Wright, to strike the jury panel.

Wright said out of the 50 prospective jurors in the pool none were black and the one black member of the pool was "excused due to lack of availability."

Wright said the black population in Clark County as of July 2004 was 152,835, or 9.1 percent of the population.

"African Americans make up a recognizable group in our community, and they obviously have their own experiences and values not shared with non-African Americans," Wright said. "I challenge the pool because its not representative of a cross section of the community."

Wright said by his calculations at least four blacks should have been a part of the 50-member juror pool.

He said the fact not one was a part of the pool was either the result of a systematic flaw in the way Clark County selects jurors or perhaps just a "significantly random occurrence as lightning striking."

Wright said the appropriate remedy would be for Wall to request a new jury pool for the case.

Deputy District Attorney Alexandria Chrysanthis agreed with Wright that no blacks in the jury pool "might be lightning striking," but the pool did have a "cross-section of other minorities."

Chrysanthis would later say the granting of a new jury pool hadn't happened before in her 18-year legal career.

"The makeup of a jury is always a concern, but more so for the defense because they are looking for certain people who can perhaps better relate to or sympathize with their client," Chrysanthis said. "We (prosecutors), however, don't care about the color of the skin or nationality of a juror when we select a jury."

Clark County Jury Commissioner Judy Rowland said residents of Clark County who have a driver's license or identification card make up the lists of prospective jurors. She said each of those individuals are assigned a number and then a pool is selected randomly.

The pool needs to "represent 85 percent of jurors in the community," Rowland said. "We don't look at race or color, but just a number. You can't base any jury pool on age, race, gender, sexual orientation or nationality."

The numbers of each prospective juror are grouped randomly when pools for specific cases are being assigned. So even when the pools are being broken down, everyone has a number but not a name, race or gender to identify them by.

Michael Sommermeyer, spokesman for District Court, said a recent study by the National Center for State Courts audited the court and found jurors represented 95 percent of the community.

"We have no way of knowing if there will be even one African-American in a given jury pool," Sommermeyer said. "A jury pool could end up being all Asians for all we know."

Sommermeyer said 3,000 juror summons are sent out each week. Out of that number, he said, half respond and half of that number actually show up and report to jury duty.

Jury selection utilizing the new juror pool for the Mayweather trial was expected to begin this morning.

Mayweather is charged with hitting Josie Harris, the mother of his three children, in a car outside the SRO Club on Dec. 27, 2003.

In June 2004 Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis found Maywether guilty of two counts of battery for punching Herneatha McGill and Karra Blackburn at the Ra nightclub in the Luxor on Aug. 1, 2003.

Mayweather was given suspended six-month prison sentences on each count and a $500 fine or 50 hours of community service for each count. Lippis said if Mayweather didn't complete "impulse control' counseling and stay out of trouble for a year, he would spend a year in prison.

Lippis also ordered Mayweather to have no contact with McGill or Blackburn.