To dream of colorblind juries and politics

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
          —Martin Luther King Jr.

Yes, surveys of the general public revealed after O.J. Simpson's murder trial that whites thought he had killed his white ex-wife, while blacks did not. But those were people who watched on TV not, those who sat in the jury box.

Now, the Juice's lawyers argue his burglary trial here was tainted because blacks were excluded from the jury panel.

"With the trial judge's help, we believe this case was not a search for the truth, but a search for redemption ..." Yale Galanter, right, told a three-judge panel of the state State Supreme Court. "They knew that if African-American jurors were on this panel, that the likelihood of conviction decreased."

But the prosecution said of the two potential jurors who happened to be black: One was dismissed because she had written in her juror questionnaire that she wouldn't send anyone to jail. The other woman produced a chiropractor's note saying she couldn't sit or stand for long periods.

The question of race bias will probably never completely disappear, but the oath of the juror is to uphold the law. It is an indictment of the jury system, in particular, if we cling to the belief people can't take that oath seriously and live by it, and, in general, of the principles of democracy.

Perhaps someday we can stop gerrymandering political districts by race.