In 1998, Patricia McTier prepared for jury duty in Georgia. It was a capital murder trial with a Black defendant. But a few days later, McTier was removed from the jury pool. She never knew why. And as years went by, she learned of the misconduct-ridden prosecutor who had kept her and other Black citizens off the case.
In March 2024, McTier publicly told her story. A month later, a similar pattern was revealed in Alameda County, California. In released notes, prosecutors not only excluded Black women from juries but also denigrated them on paper. "Short, Fat, Troll,” for one juror. Another, "pro-union, pro affirmative action, for the oppressed. Lived Oak. all life ... Says race no issue but I don't believe her."
The anti-Blackness and misogynoir ingrained in the criminal legal system forges cycles of incarceration. Black incarcerated people are already hypercriminalized. Prosecutors squash Black defendants’ chances at freedom by discriminating against Black jurors, especially Black women.
The Supreme Court didn’t decide that gender-based juror strikes violated Fourteenth Amendment rights until 1994. That same decade, Alabama prosecutors admitted to excluding Black women from juries only because they were women, claiming it as a “race-neutral” reason.
After this exposé on Alameda County, its 35 death penalty cases came up for review. But we deserve a system that doesn't continue to devalue, degrade, and silence Black women.