A Manhattan public defense organization wants the courts to disclose juror demographic information — including race — in order to address the persistent lack of diversity in jury pools. This past December, New York County Defender Services (NYCDS) legal director Sergio de la Pava filed a motion to the Appellate Division’s First Department last December calling for such a reform.
Currently, potential jurors already provide self-identified demographic information like race, gender, and sex when appearing for jury duty. Defense attorneys can make a Batson challenge on Equal Protection Clause grounds if they feel the prosecution is specifically striking out potential jurors because of their identity. But the demographic information remains undisclosed and unavailable to the legal parties, forcing them to presume a potential juror’s background based on appearance.
“I don’t think the best we can achieve as a system in 2026 is [through] guesswork,” said de la Pava. “I believe a necessary foundational step first is to have this transparency about what is the makeup of the folks walking into a courtroom to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused. And is it representative of our communities? Are they genuinely peers of our clients?
“[The] cloak of darkness on this information runs counter to that. I think reform begins with transparency, and that’s what we’re seeking with this application.”
Research long showed major disparities in conviction rates due to excluding Black jurors for Black defendants. According to a 2012 Duke University study, all-white jury pools in Florida’s Sarasota and Lake counties convicted Black defendants 16% more frequently than white defendants. Yet just one Black juror in the pool would almost entirely eliminate the disparity, according to the research.
NYCDS’s motion also mentions “fair cross-section” arguments, which draws from the Sixth Amendment to ensure a jury pool reflects the defendant’s community. The representation does not require precise math. The state’s judiciary law similarly mandates a “fair cross-section” from where the court convenes.
“The fundamental ammunition to any fair-cross-section motion is the actual demographic makeup of the collection of prospective jurors being 10 evaluated,” reads the motion. “The current practice of denying the parties this highly salient information lacks sense. Worse, it unnecessarily imperils every criminal defendant’s right to an impartial jury. A right, no matter how fundamental, that is not paired to a meaningful ability to assert it, is no right at all.
“Yet, without reliable information regarding the prospective jurors, one wonders how any New York defendant can even plausibly detect, let alone prove, a violation of their fair- cross-section right.”
If granted, the motion would apply in any criminal trial in the First Department, which spans Manhattan and the Bronx. According to a NYCDS spokesperson, the next hearing over the motion was pushed back to next month.
“To go solely by appearance or solely by surname or solely by command over the language runs counter to the ultimate goal here,” said de la Pava. “The ultimate goal is increasing diversity. The ultimate goal here is combating discrimination. And yet, to do that, you’re kind of forced to engage in very stereotypes that we think are harmful.”