A group of Manhattan defense attorneys is suing the state court system for access to demographic data they say could help prevent discrimination during jury selection in criminal trials.
New York County Defender Services, a Manhattan public defender group, filed a motion late last year asking the court system to share prospective jurors’ demographic information with defense lawyers and prosecutors during jury selection, so they can ensure discrimination is not muddying the process.
Criminal defendants have a right to trials before a juries that reflect their communities. New York’s constitution also protects potential jurors from disqualification based on race, creed, national origin or sex.
State court officials already collect demographic data from potential jurors. When New Yorkers report for state jury duty, they fill out a form with their race, gender and other identity traits. But that data isn’t shared with courtroom lawyers, who have to decide on the spot whether they think potential jurors are being discriminated against because of their race, religion or other protected characteristics.
New York County Defender Services is arguing that the state’s current jury selection process jeopardizes the rights of both defendants and prospective jurors. They’re expected to make their arguments in court next week.
“The stakes are too high for this kind of imprecision that we’re currently operating under,” Sergio De La Pava, legal director for New York County Defender Services, said in an interview.
The Office of Court Administration, the Bronx district attorney’s office and the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York declined to comment. The Manhattan district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The jury selection ‘guessing game’
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution and subsequent Supreme Court decisions have guaranteed defendants’ rights to an impartial jury selected from a “fair cross-section of the community.” New York state tries to get that “fair cross-section” into its courtrooms by randomly summoning potential jurors through a mix of databases, including tax filings, voter rolls and unemployment records.
If a criminal defendant thinks their slate of potential jurors doesn’t reflect the demographics of their community, they can ask for a new group to be called into the courtroom. But it’s nearly impossible for defense attorneys to make that type of argument without data, De La Pava said.
“You’re tasked with this rather critical obligation, and then you’re not given the tools,” he said.
The lack of access to demographic data also makes it difficult for attorneys to raise concerns when they believe potential jurors are being illegally blocked from serving based on identity traits like ethnicity or religion, New York County Defender Services argued in its court papers.
At the beginning of a trial, potential jurors face questions from the judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys to assess whether they can fairly evaluate the evidence and reach a verdict. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are each allowed to strike a certain number of jurors without giving a reason. If the opposing side thinks a prospective juror is being struck because of their race or another protected characteristic, they can challenge it.
Without knowing for sure potential jurors’ demographics, De La Pava said, attorneys are forced to assume based on clues like people’s appearances or last names. This attempt to avoid discrimination, he said, can force attorneys to do the opposite: stereotype and profile potential jurors.
“Are we going to inspire confidence that these things are being done at the highest possible level to protect everyone’s constitutional rights? Or are we going to engage in what often devolves into a guessing game?” he said.
Some attorneys argue that this type of illegal screening happens regularly in New York courtrooms. In 2023, a group of law professors filed ethics complaints against 10 current and former prosecutors who judges found had illegally removed potential jurors, including a former Queens prosecutor who admitted to using notes that advised against selecting “Hispanics” and “grandmotherly types” for a jury. But these types of public findings of wrongdoing during jury selection are rare.
If court officials shared juror demographic information with attorneys, De La Pava said, it could be used in two primary ways. First, lawyers could compare the demographic makeup of the potential jurors called into the courtroom with the overall makeup of the borough to assess whether their client’s jury pool reflects a “fair cross-section of the community.” Second, attorneys could use the data when disputes come up about prospective jurors’ demographic information.
“You could immediately get to the truth of the matter and figure out: ‘Why is it that the jury is not representative of the community? Why is it that there’s no one or very few people who look like my client or have had his life experiences?’” said Peter Santina, managing attorney at the legal reform organization Civil Rights Corps. “It’s actually quite shocking that we’re in 2026, the data’s being collected and it’s not being shared.”
As of 2024, New York was one of 19 states that collected juror demographic data, according to a Berkeley Law report. Of those states, New York was one of only three that didn’t share that data with attorneys, the report found.
“It seems that New York is an outlier in that respect and that this is a fairly straightforward way of providing that important information to the attorneys involved,” Santina said.
Russell Neufeld, a former attorney in charge at the Legal Aid Society, said providing attorneys with demographic data could help to ensure that juries are representative of the local community and minimize the risk that bias will taint a jury’s decision.
“One person with bias can poison a whole jury,” he said.
Studies have found the demographic makeup of a jury can affect its decisions. If a defendant is a minority and no one from their group is in the jury, Neufeld said, one biased person could make comments that convince the entire jury to find them guilty.
“But if there’s just one Latino, one Black person, one Jewish person, one Muslim person on the jury,” he said “the racist, biased, bigoted person is much less likely to express themselves and poison the rest of the jury with their bias.”
This story has been updated to reflect that the state Office of Court Administration declined comment.