U.S. Supreme Court PIERRE v. STATE OF LA., 306 U.S. 354 (1939)

[Page 306 U.S. 354, 355]

The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed. [Footnote 1] His petition for certiorari to review the Louisiana Supreme Court's judgment rested upon the grave claim- earnestly, but unsuccessfully urged in both State courts-that because of his race he had not been accorded the equal protection of the laws guaranteed to all races in all the States by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, U.S.C.A. For this reason, we granted certiorari. 2

[Page 306 U.S. 354, 357]

of a commission of a crime and brings the accused before the court for prosecution.' But the bill of rights of the Louisiana Constitution 1921 ( Dart. 1932, Art. 1, 9) provides that 'no person shall be held to answer for capital crime unless on a presentment or indictment by a grand jury , ....' And the State concedes here, as the Supreme Court of Louisiana pointed out in its opinion in this case, that '... it is specially provided in the (Louisiana) law prescribing the method of drawing grand and petit jurors to serve in both civil and criminal cases that 'there shall be no distinction made on account of race, color, or previous condition (of servitude)" and 'If ... (qualified) members of the Negro ... race ... have been systematically excluded from ... service in the parish of St. John, ... solely because of their race or color, the indictment should have been quashed ....' (189 La. 764, 180 So. 631, 632 .) Exclusion from Grand or Petit Jury service on account of race is forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment. [Footnote 4] In addition to the safeguards of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress has provided that 'No citizen possessing all other qualifications ... shall be disqualified for service as grand or petit jurors in any court of the United States, or of any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude ; ....'5 Petitioner does not here contend that Louisiana laws required an unconstitutional exclusion or negroes from the Grand Jury which indicted him. His evidence was offered to show that Louisiana-acting through its administrative officers-had deliberately and systematically excluded negroes from jury service because of race, in violation of the laws and Constitutions of Louisiana and the United States. [Footnote 6]

[Page 306 U.S. 354, 358]

If petitioner's evidence of such systematic exclusion of negroes from the general venire was sufficient to support the trial court's action in quashing the Petit Jury drawn from that general venire, it necessarily follows that the indictment returned by a Grand Jury, selected from the same general venire, should also have been quashed.

Second. But the State insists, and the Louisiana Supreme Court held ( the Chief Justice dissenting), that this evidence failed to establish that members of the negro race were excluded from the Grand Jury venire on account of race, and that the trial court's finding of discrimination was erroneous. Our decision and judgment must therefore turn upon these disputed questions of fact. In our consideration of the facts the conclusions reached by the Supreme Court of Louisiana are entitled to great respect. Yet, when a claim is properly asserted-as in this case-that a citizen whose life is at stake has been denied the equal protection of the country's laws on account of his race, it becomes our solemn duty to make independent inquiry and determination of the disputed facts7-for equal protection to all is the basic principle upon which justice under law rests. Indictment by Grand jury and trial by jury cease to harmonize with our traditional concepts of justice at the very moment particular groups, classes or races-otherwise qualified to serve as jurors in a community-are excluded as such from jury service8. The Fourteenth Amendment intrusts those who because of race are denied equal protection of the laws in a State first 'to the revisory power of the higher courts of the State, and ultimately to the review of this court.' [Footnote 9]

[Page 306 U.S. 354, 360]

(a) A citizen of the State, over twenty-one years of age with two years' residence in the Parish.

(b) Able to read and write the English language,

(c) Not charged with any offense or convicted of a felony,

(d) Of well known good character and standing in the community. [Footnote 10]

[Page 306 U.S. 354, 361]

maintain the required three hundred names. Although Petit Jurors are drawn from the general venire box after the names have been well mixed,12 the law provides13 that 'the commission shall select ... (from the general venire list) the names of twenty citizens, possessing the qualifications of grand jurors, ....' (Italics supplied.) The twenty names out of which the challenged Grand Jury of twelve was drawn, actually were the first twenty names on a new list of fifty names supplied-on the day the Grand Jury List was selected-by the Jury Commission as a 'supplement' to the general venire of three hundred. Thus, if colored citizens had been named on the general venire, they apparently were not considered, because the Commission went no further than the first twenty names on the supplemental list which itself contained no names of negroes. Furthermore, the uncontradicted evidence on the motion to quash showed that no negro had ever been selected for Grand Jury service in the Parish within the memory of any of the witnesses who testified on that point.

The testimony introduced by petitioner on his motion to quash created a strong prima facie showing that negroes had been systematically excluded- because of race-from the Grand Jury and the venire from which it was selected. Such an exclusion is a denial of equal protection of the laws, contrary to the Federal Constitution-the supreme law of the land. [Footnote 14] 'The fact that the testimony ... was not challenged by evidence appropriately direct, cannot be brushed aside.' [Footnote 15] Had there been evidence obtainable to contradict and disprove the testimony offered

[Page 306 U.S. 354, 362]

by petitioner, it cannot be assumed that the State would have refrained from introducing it. The Jury Commissioners, appointed by the District Judge, were not produced as witnesses by the State. The trial judge, who had appointed the Commission, listening to the evidence and aided by a familiarity with conditions in the Parish of many years' standing, as judge, prosecutor and practicing attorney, concluded that negroes had been excluded from Jury service because of their race, and ordered the venire quashed and the box purged and refilled. Our examination of the evidence convinces us that the bill of exceptions which he signed correctly stated that petitioner 'did prove at the trial of said motion to Quash that negroes as persons of color had been purposely excluded from the Grand Jury Venire and Panel which returned said indictment against ... ( petitioner) on account of their color and race, ....'

Principles which forbid discrimination in the selection of Petit Juries also govern the selection of Grand Juries. 'It is a right to which every colored man is entitled, that, in the selection of jurors to pass upon his life, liberty, or property, there shall be no exclusion of his race, and no discrimination against them because of their color.' [Footnote 16] This record requires the holding that the court below was in error both in affirming the conviction of petitioner and in failing to hold that the indictment against him should have been quashed. The cause is reversed and remanded to the Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Reversed. Footnotes

Footnote 1 189 La. 764, 180 So. 630.

Footnote 2 305 U.S. 586, 59 S.Ct. 100, 83 L.Ed. --.

Footnote 3 Under Louisiana practice the District Judge orders the Jury Commission to select three hundred qualified jurors in a given Parish, who compose the general venire list, to be kept complete and supplemented from time to time. These names are placed in the 'General Venire Box.' From the general venire list, the Commission selects twenty persons qualified as grand jurors, to serve six months, who compose the 'List of Grand Jurors.' The Judge selects a foreman from the 'List of Grand Jurors' and the sheriff draws eleven more who, with the foreman, constitute the Grand Jury Panel. After selection of the 'List of Grand Jurors' the Commission draws thirty names from the 'General Venire Box' to serve as Petit Jurors, who are designated a 'List of Jurors' and this 'List of Jurors' is kept in the 'Jury Box.' Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure (Dart, 1932) Title 18, c. 2.

Footnote 4 Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 308, 309 S.; Carter v. Texas, 177 U.S. 442, 447, 20 S.Ct. 687, 689; Martin v. Texas, 200 U.S. 316, 319, 26 S.Ct. 338.

Footnote 5 U.S.C. Title 8, 44, 8 U.S.C.A. 44.

Footnote 6 Cf., Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587, 589, 55 S.Ct. 579, 580; Neal v. Delaware, , 397; Carter v. Texas, supra, page 447, 26 S.Ct. page 689; Hale v. Kentucky, 303 U.S. 613, 616, 58 S.Ct. 753, 754.

Footnote 7 Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587, 590, 55 S.Ct. 570, 580.

Footnote 8 Cf. Strauder v. West Virginia, supra, pages 308, 309.

Footnote 9 Virginia v. Rives, 100›u.S. 313, 319.

Footnote 10 Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure, supra, Title 18, c. 1, art. 172.

Footnote 11 See note 3, supra.

Footnote 12 Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure, supra, Title 18, c. 2, Art. 181.

Footnote 13 Id., Art. 180.

Footnote 14 Neal v. Delaware, supra, page 397; Norris v. Alabama, supra, page 591, 55 S.Ct. page 580; Hale v. Kentucky, supra, page 616, 58 S.Ct. page 754.

Footnote 15 Norris v. Alabama, supra, pages 594, 595, 55 S.Ct. page 582.

Footnote 16 Virginia v. Rives, supra, pages 322, 323.