Jury Of Our Peers

Excluding people with felony convictions from jury service undermines our democracy.

Everyone deserves judgement by a jury of their peers, but New York law permanently bans people who have been convicted of a felony from serving on a jury. This discrimination skews the jury pool, particularly in communities that have been devastated by over policing and racist sentencing.

Jury service is a cornerstone of our system of self-government and, along with voting, represents Americans' most significant opportunity to participate in the democratic process. In 2021, New York passed legislation to restore the right to vote to people with felony convictions upon release from prison. The State Legislature recognized that "facilitating reentrance in the voting process should be an essential component of rehabilitation and reintegration." It's also another step towards strengthening democracy, in line with reforms like the Enhancing Electoral Education Legislation that was signed by Governor Hochul in 2023. The same is true of jury service.

Yet New York law permanently disqualifies people convicted of felonies from serving on a jury. As we all know, structural racism and class bias operate in ways that disproportionately convict black, brown and working-class people. As a result, Black and brown New Yorkers are overrepresented among the population with felony convictions and underrepresented in jury pools across the state.

New York should repeal this lifetime ban by passing the Jury Of Our Peers Act (S.206A/A.1432A) sponsored by Senator Cordell Cleare and Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry.

New York remains trapped in a vicious cycle.

The underrepresentation of Black and Latinx people on juries contributes to the overrepresenation of Black and Latinx people among the population with felony convictions, which in turn drives their further underrepresentation in the jury pool.

New York is out of step with our peers.

21 states and the District of Columbia either never exclude people with felony convictions from jury service or provide for automatic restoration of eligibility after a set time.

And New York is far behind even conservative states. When Florida changed its constitution to restore voting rights to people with felonies who had completed their sentences, those people were still permanently excluded from jury service—just as they are in New York. Governor Ron DeSantis recognized the incongruity and restored the right to serve on a jury as well. New Yorkers should have at least the same level as civil rights as citizens of Ron DeSantis’s Florida.

Jury disenfranchisement serves no legitimate purpose.

As a class, people with felony convictions are as capable of serving as jurors as any other group of citizens.

Jury disenfranchisement is unnecessary.

The law already provides for individualized screening of prospective jurors in civil and criminal trials and on grand juries.

For many people convicted of felonies, civic engagement — including through political participation such as voting and jury service — is a critical means to facilitate sustainable reintegration back into society.

The restoration of civil rights also enhances public safety and community stability, as research shows that people whose civil rights have been restored are substantially less likely to reoffend.

Restoring the right of people with felony convictions to serve on juries is the right thing to do and it is an imperative to instilling racial justice within our courts.

The premise of a "jury of our peers" can only be actualized when all people are represented on juries. Statutory exclusion that undermines the representation of any community in our courts should not be tolerated — the law must be reformed.