Thanks, Rick. 
I once saw a magazine cartoon set in a courtroom; one juror, standing up, is a scowling, bearded man holding a sign reading “ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT!” One lawyer asks the judge, “May I ask, please, who screened the jury?”
In his book Left-Handed Kids, author James DeKay notes that a jury in Woodbridge, IL, awarded a woman, who worked at a supermaket checkstand, over $130,000 in damages after her employer tried to force her to ring up groceries with her right hand. DeKay drew all 12 jurors left-handed! The defense counsel in the real case would, likely, have insisted that at least six of the jurors be right-handed. Hey, if they were all lefties, defense counsel could move for a declaration of mistrial…
An interesting question. Could I make a Batson-type challenge to lefthanders? Are right and left handers a cognizable class or group?
What we need, here, is a test case!
- Rick
Who is Batson?
You know, Billy Batson (Captain Marvel).
Your Official Cat Goddess since 10/20/99.
SD chat:
<Jophiel> Kat’s here! the board must be down!
Oh, I see, Kat. I’m sorry. I never read Captain Marvel; I did see the satire of him and his boy alter ego in the article “Superduperman!” in the comic-book Mad. How would this apply to a left-handed jury?
Maybe he’s left-handed?
Batson is the name of the Supreme Court case I mention in my post of 03-08-2000 02:41 PM, above. It’s the case that establish a due process violation if members of a cognizeable racial group are excluded from the jury. It also sets forth a procedure by which the challenging side may object to the dismissal of a potential juror (briefly: the challenging side asserts a Batson challenge; the judge makes an initial decision as to whether a prima facie racial discrimination pattern exists, and if it does, the burden then falls to the other side to provide a race-neutral reason for the juror’s dismissal.)
- Rick
In any case, Bricker, I think if a left-handed person brought suit in the issue of left-handedness, the opposition would certainly protest an all-left-handed jury. Am I right?
They might protest it - but the question is, would they have grounds? That is, could one side say, “Hey, wait a second - he’s using his preemptory challenges to remove only right-handed people from the jury!”
Normally, one side may challenge any juror for cause, and also has a certain number of preemptory challenges which they may exercise at will. They may not, however, use preemptory challenges to remove cognizeable racial groups from the jury. That’s the point of Batson. Some of Batson’s progeny also protect gender, as well as race.
To my knowledge, there is no case law that protects handedness. So my guess is that one side could not protest the use of preemptory challenges designed to create a left-handed jury, even if the cause of action went to some aspect of left-handedness.
- Rick