“As the judge will tell you, in deciding whether or not the prosecution has proven the charge against an accused a juror must judge the evidence of the witnesses without bias, prejudice or partiality.
Would your ability to judge the evidence in this case without bias, prejudice or partiality be affected by the fact that the person charged is black? “
For the past two decades, in cases involving black accused, a question of this sort has been asked by defence lawyers to screen potential jurors for racism. It is known in the legal community as the Parks question (named after the landmark case where the question was originally litigated at the Ontario Court of Appeal).
A similar question is permitted to be asked of potential jurors when the accused is of another visible minority background such as an Aboriginal or South Asian.
More recently, defence lawyers, including Faisal Mirza, successfully sought to ask more finely tuned and additional questions to potential jurors to obtain greater insight into the potential jurors level of prejudice. Although a major advancement in its era, the Parks question has been more recently challenged for its actual ability to effectively identify racist jurors. This is because it only deals with self identified racism and not more commonly held sub-conscious bias.
The Douse decision represented another advancement in jury selection. Today, a trial judge may also permit the additional Douse questions (also named after the landmark case that litigated the new questions.) Specifically, they allow defence counsel to ask the following further questions:
Which answer most accurately reflects your answer to that (Parks) question:
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(b) I might be able to judge the case fairly.
(c) I would be able to judge the case fairly.
(d) I do not know if I would be able to judge the case fairly.
The struggle for equality in the administration of criminal justice system continues. Our office has been and will continue to be integrally involved in those efforts.
Call or email us for a consultation.