Save the Strikes: ASTC’s Research-Based Case Against Prohibiting the Peremptories
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The last few years have seen a societal turn toward identifying and addressing systems that institutionalize discrimination based on race, gender, and other demographic traits. That attention is obviously a good thing. But one issue that has been caught up in that trend has been a call to eliminate the peremptory strike in civil and/or criminal cases. Several states are looking at the move, and Arizona has been the first in actually eliminating peremptory strikes in all jury trials. The argument has been that, because peremptory challenges have been used to discriminate, and because the