A strange motion from a 2013 cop killer case in Virginia sniffs eerily similar to the beginning of a “Disparate Impact” defense.
In an otherwise ‘under-the-radar’ murder case involving a suspect named Russell E. Brown III, charged with killing Virginia State Police trooper Junius A. Walker, a defense motion surfaces that could potentially be alarming. The defense team wants to investigate the racial composition of Dinwiddie County grand jury members:
Brown is charged with eight felony counts, including capital murder of a police officer, in the March 7, 2013, killing of Walker, 63, who was shot in his police cruiser on Interstate 85 after the officer rolled up to Brown’s vehicle stopped on the shoulder to see if Brown needed any help.
Police said that after shooting Walker with a Russian-made, .308-caliber semiautomatic rifle and exchanging gunfire with another trooper, Brown dropped his weapon and fled, disrobing as he ran. He was found hiding naked in the back of a car at a nearby towing company. After his arrest, Brown told authorities that God had directed him to shoot Walker.
(Via Richmond.Com) […] Capital-murder suspect Russell E. Brown III’s public defenders also want to investigate the composition of Dinwiddie County’s grand jury system over the past five years in an apparent effort to detect racial or selection bias in the grand jury process, according to recent court filings in the case.
Lawyers are seeking “the entire pool of potential members” of the county’s grand jury during the past five years, to include the race, age and gender of each person. They also have requested from Dinwiddie Circuit Court Clerk J. Barrett Chappell Jr. the list of people, along with their demographical information, who ultimately were seated as grand jurors those years.
[…] In response to the request for grand jury data, Chappell said he has gathered the names of about 1,000 people who were randomly selected for the court’s master grand jury list during the five-year period, and an additional 420 names of people randomly selected from the master list to sit on grand juries during that time. Chappell said he cannot supply the races or genders of those people because the court did not acquire them, but the birth date of each person is available.
Since grand juror information is sealed to protect their identities, the presiding judge, Paul W. Cella, will have to authorize their release, Chappell said. The judge has directed the defense to file a formal motion for the data and schedule a hearing if needed.
Assistant Capital Defender Seth Shelley, the attorney who requested the data, did not respond to an email or phone message seeking comment on why the defense is seeking the data. (read more)
What possible bearing could the historic race, age and gender of every grand juror have in the defense of their client… other than a “disparate Impact” assembly?
Your thoughts?