European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 7, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Better to keep race in the running for rep. Ford trial Clarence Page he question of race in the selection of juries just wont go away. Raised anew in the retrial of . Rep. Harold Ford a Tennit has bounced All the Way to the White House and reverberated in the trial of four los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney King. As far As the presiding judge in Fords second Bahk fraud trial. . District judge Jerome Turner is concerned race should have no role in jury selection. He issued a blistering Rebuff to a request by acting attorney general Stuart Gerson a Bush administration Holdover that supported Ford s quest for a new jury in his retrial. Fords first trial held in Memphis ended in a Hung jury. The july a a four Whites voted to convict and its eight Blacks voted to acquit Ford who is . District judge Odell Horton a Black Carter appointee ruled in favor of prosecutors who wanted a jury selected from outside Memphis. The result a second jury composed of 11 Whites and one Black was selected from the area around Jackson tenn., 35 Miles East of Memphis. Before the july could Board a bus to Memphis the congressional Black caucus protested its composition to Gerson and Webb Hubbell Hillary Rodham Clinton a former Law partner and now White House Liaison to the Justice department. Gerson tech made his request which Turner angrily rejected. 4<if we Are truly to become one nation to be integrated in a society where the Laws Are Colo Blind and All men Are equal under the Law then we cannot allow the demands of racially fixed juries to invade our jury system of random selection a said the judge. That sounds fair enough at first glance anyway. The supreme court has held that prosecutors cannot strike proc tial jurors on the basis of race nor does the Constitution entitle defendants to a particular composition racial or otherwise. But there Are two other principles americans also hold dear that Are relevant Here trial by a jury of ones Peers and the presumption of innocence for example if the Law is Quot Colo Blind a Why do Fords prosecutors wish to select a jury from 85 Miles from Memphis is it Mem hians whom the prosecution is worried about or is it Black Mem hians prosecutors argued that Memphis atmosphere had been poisoned against them by pretrial publicity and local intimidation. Of if the possibility of intimidation required relocation of trials maybe the trial of the four los Angeles police officers should be moved to Harlem. Since Fords first jury voted overwhelmingly in his favor along racial lines we can reasonably question Why the prosecution is so eager to move the jury selection but of Memphis where the area selection Pool is about 42 percent Black. And could it be that racial fixing Isnit the ques ton but rather whose Side shall that jury be racially fixed to favor in other words if race can be taken into account in moving jury selection out of town Why not take it into account in moving it Back As Legal principles go what a Good for the prosecution ought to be Good for the defense if indeed the system is fair. This is where the presumption of innocence comes in. I done to know whether Ford is guilty. That a Why we have trials. Unfortunately there seems to be a presumption underlying this episode that just because the eight Black jurors voted in Fords defense and the four White jurors voted against him the Blacks must be wrong. What if they happened to be right Why ignore the usual presumption of innocence so cavalierly in Fords Case even if he is Black and a congressman trial or no trial racial quotas for jurors rub against the american Grain for Good reason. We must never etch into Stone the notion that individual thinking and behaviour can be predicted based on race. I too oppose the idea of racial quotas for jurors. But without intending any personal offence to any of Fords jurors America has not progressed far enough for me to be entirely comfortable with the idea that a Black congressman can get a fair trial with a nearly All White jury. It is Tricky an a treacherous to assume that individual thinking and behaviour can be predicted based on race. But that charming principle cuts both ways. Any bsh Dick Salant never blinked when it came to Andy Rooney h Onesty was a Hobby with Dick Salant. He thought about it All the time and talked about it a lot. He was obsessed with the idea of integrity in television journalism. You know Dick but chances Are because of him you re better informed about events that took place in the world in the 60s and �?T70s than you would be if he had not been president of lbs news for 16 years during that time he was always on the Lookout for anything dishonest inaccurate biased or frivolous in any of its reports. As head of lbs news Salant was a no nonsense Guy who forbade the addition of any sound that was not on the original film. He issued a permanent order against the use of any kind of music on a lbs news broadcast. Quot broadcast Quot by the Way was his word. He refused to have a lbs news program called Quot a if head been running a newspaper instead of a television network news operation it have had comic strips crossword puzzles or horoscopes. Lbs had a Good correspondent in los Angeles who did a report for the evening news about the prevalence of hitchhikers up and Down the Pacific coast. The correspondent took his teen age daughter with him when he went out with a camera Crew to shoot the Story and just for fun had her stand by the Side of the Road with other hitchhikers while they were being filmed. It did no to seem very dishonest but Dick Salant found out about it and the correspondent was suspended without pay for six months and Lucky to keep his Job. Quot not very dishonest Quot Wasny to close enough to honest for Dick. When Salant retired from lbs news in 1979, there were executives at lbs who were glad to see him go. He was so pig heatedly honest and so devoted to informing the american Public about what they ought to know that he was a pain in the neck to a Tennessee a Harold Ford faces Bank fraud trial. Fair minded observer who is familiar with this nations troubled history of mistrial and injustices perpetrated against Blacks by All White juries right up to americans recent history should see that Quot racially fixed juries were not invented by Black defendants. Whether we like the fixing of a jury Pool or not changes of venue have precisely that effect although in a reasonably benign manner. So if any such fixing is going to occur it seems our tradition of fair treatment for the defense should oblige us to err in favor of the individual defendant not state Power As represented by the prosecution. A Good Compromise then would be to avoid strict quotas on juries but not without making All reasonable efforts to make jury selection from a racially representative Pool. Its Only fair. After All that which helps a Black congressman today might help a White policeman tomorrow. Trio Chicago Tribune the businessmen in the company whose interest was not news but moneys after he left lbs Salant spent two years at Abc they never understood him at Abc. Abc could have used him this year. No one who worked for Dick Salant would have embarrassed a whole Industry including Good people at Abc by rigging that pm pickup truck fire. Quot news a Salant said a is a business Enterprise but it is also a moral Salant was convinced that for a democracy to function properly voters had to be informed and he was determined to do everything he could to that end. He was Lucky to have an Anchorman who Felt the same about news As he did a Walter Cronkite. Since his final retirement several years ago Dick Salant had a Battery of Vars taping Ever conceivable news broadcast so he miss one while he was watching another. He was the ultimate news Junkie. I Tell you All this about Richard Salant because he died of a heart attack last month while giving a talk about journalism to a group of senior citizens in Southport Conn. Quot it was an Honor to work for him Quot Dan rather said Quot and a great Joy too Quot Tribune Media service Andy Rooney is a ormer Star and stripes reporter. March 7, 1993 sunday a Page 9
