Letter: Justice Kennedy’s ruling misguided

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s setting aside a jury verdict in the matter of Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, with colleagues Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, has opened the floodgates for impeaching thousands of properly rendered jury verdicts. They literally threw the baby out with the bathwater.

In rectifying an obvious miscarriage of justice in that case, Kennedy wrote, “Not every offhand comment indicating racial bias or hostility will justify setting aside the non-impeachment bar.” He has opened the door to contest properly rendered jury verdicts.

Losing defense attorneys will seize upon this misguided ruling, interviewing jurors after the verdict to allege some racial bias. If the verdict is sustained, defense counsel will appeal. To be safe, the trial court can simply set aside the verdict and order a new trial. And so the merry-go-round begins.

The solution was to mandate that every trial judge’s jury instructions include the admonition to promptly report any real racial bias during deliberations. If reported, the judge interviews the jurors individually on the record. If it is true and serious, that juror is replaced with one of the alternates already sitting in the jury box with a further admonition going forward.

The justices have lost their way and forgot what it’s like in the real world.

We obviously need fresh blood on the Supreme Court. They have been there too long.

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Letter: Justice Kennedy’s ruling misguided."