Jury service in Seattle Municipal Court was recently compared to 1930s jury service in Mississippi.

While King County in 2018 is not 1930s Mississippi, the lack of African-Americans in the jury pool in Seattle and King County is real. Although King County is approximately 8% African-American, its juries are only about 4% African American.

The under-representation of African-Americans on juries impacts conviction rates. A study of felony trials in Florida showed that in cases with no black members of the jury pool, black defendants were convicted 81 percent of the time, while white defendants were convicted 66 percent of the time. When the jury pool included at least one black person, the conviction rates were instead nearly identical: 71 percent for black defendants, 73 percent for whites.

This rebalancing of conviction outcomes would not address the finding of the Seattle University Task Force on Race and the Criminal Justice System that "the fact of racial and ethnic disproportionality in [Washington's] criminal justice system is indisputable.” It would, however, go a long way toward restoring the legitimacy of a jury system about which many prospective jurors and criminal defendants now openly express doubts.

In the face of minority displacement to south King County and ongoing majority white migration to north King County and Seattle, addressing the lack of jury diversity will require both short term and long term steps.

First, a pilot project of blanketing diverse zip codes with jury summonses should be tried in conjunction with outreach targeted to business, religious and cultural groups within those zip codes.

Second, in King County Superior Court, the County is divided into a north jury pool (for the Seattle courthouse) and a south jury pool (for the Kent courthouse). There is evidence that this division is contributing to markedly less diverse juries in the Seattle courthouse. The Court should reconsider the boundary lines to incorporate more racially diverse zip codes into the Seattle courthouse catchment area.

Third, we need longitudinal data. Three recently conducted studies confirm jury composition in King County is disproportionately white. We need to know year from year what jury pool composition looks like to be able to effectively address underrepresentation of minorities over the long term. New York State has addressed this issue with the Jury Pool Fair Representation Act, which requires ongoing data collection.

In the longer term, the Legislature must revisit the issue of juror pay, which is currently capped by law at $25 a day. Too many jurors of all racial identities are unable to serve due to the economic hardship of jury duty.

To their credit, jurors in King County are increasingly aware of and troubled by the disproportionality they are experiencing in the jury pool. As officers of the justice system who encounter this reality every day, we must strive vigorously and expeditiously to remove the barriers to jury diversity. Our oaths as lawyers and judges to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Washington require nothing less.

Anita Khandelwal is the deputy director of the King County Department of Public Defense.

Judge Cathy Moore is a King County Superior Court Judge and former chair of the Seattle Human Rights Commission.