When the law speaks of defendants being entitled to a jury of their peers, it's obvious no one contemplated Michael Jackson's place in the justice system.
The millionaire pop music star, who is charged with committing lewd acts on a child, is in a class of his own.
But should his lawyer decide to challenge Santa Barbara County's jury-selection process as skewed against him, it would be possible to do so on one issue: whether it systematically excludes racial minorities. That issue already has been a subject of legal challenges in Santa Barbara County.
One of those cases is pending before a state appeals court. A judge found that Hispanics were being excluded from juries because of the manner in which jurors were summoned for service.
For Jackson, the problem is compounded by the lack of blacks in Santa Maria, where his case would be tried. Census figures show blacks represent just 2.3 percent of Santa Barbara County's population.
The issue under consideration by the appellate court is a lack of follow-up to jury summonses by the jury commissioner's office. The commissioner sends out questionnaires to prospective panelists but does not follow up if they are not returned, said Santa Barbara attorney James Herman, a past president of the state bar.
"You wind up with a self-selecting jury pool," he said.
The lack of follow-up results in "a volunteer jury," said Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Steve Cron, who is familiar with the procedure. He said many Hispanics in the agricultural areas around Santa Maria are farm laborers who might not return the jury summons because they can't afford to take time off work for jury service.
Loyola University Law School Professor Laurie Levenson said the Jackson case could provide an unexpected twist: that Santa Barbara County residents who normally would not answer a jury summons may do so now with the high-profile trial looming.
Jackson's arraignment on seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent is scheduled for Jan. 16.
Until then, all warrants and affidavits in the case will be sealed.
Cron said the law guarantees defendants a jury taken from a cross-section of the community in which they live. But that cross-section in Santa Maria would have few blacks.
Los Angeles defense attorney Harland Braun said there is no question Jackson would have a better chance with a multiracial jury.
"Blacks still tend to regard him as a hero," he said. "Whites look at him as a weirdo."
Braun suggested the defense should try to move the case out of Santa Barbara County to a more urban, racially diverse area such as Los Angeles or San Francisco. But he said the legal argument for change of venue should not be racially based.
"I would challenge on the basis of the district attorney having polluted the potential jury pool in Santa Barbara County with his pretrial comments," Braun said.
District Attorney Tom Sneddon was criticized for his sometimes sarcastic demeanor after authorities issued an arrest warrant for Jackson in November.
In rejecting suggestions that he timed the arrest to coincide with the release of Jackson's latest album, Sneddon said, "Like the sheriff and I are really into that kind of music."
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