Lonzie Cox – 12/4/09

This page was last updated on December 6, 2009.

Jury composition is a civil right issue; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; December 4, 2009. I am not related to Mr. Cox.

Most of Mr. Cox’s 40+ letters since 2004 are tinged with race. This letter continues the trend.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Thanks to attorney Mitchell Shahen, the jury selection system in Beaver County will get a court hearing.

“In a letter to The Times years ago I shared my experiences as a potential juror. It was obvious to me at the time that the number of minority defendants facing trial had no relationship to the racial makeup of the people who would be chosen as jurors.

“In the jury selection room that day there were 167 candidates, only one of whom was an African American. My letter at that time was to show that the process was skewed away from the defendants facing a jury of their peers as the law allows.”

[RWC] To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Cox is not an “African American.” He is a black American, but I don’t believe he was born in Africa.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks are about 6.3% of Beaver County’s population. Had 10 or 11 of the 167 jury candidates been black, how much do you want to bet Mr. Cox would still be complaining? By the way, 6.3% means a 12-person jury would have only about 0.76 black jurors on average. Can anyone hear Mr. Cox still complaining?

“Obviously, no changes have been made since I pointed out the inequalities of the system at that time. The recent article shows each county official passing the buck upwards until finally no changes are made to an obviously unfair system and questions are no longer asked.

“The lack of black police officers and jurors in Beaver County’s legal system is a civil rights issue and should be treated as such.”

[RWC] This letter implies Mr. Cox is a racist. Why? Mr. Cox appears to want juries to be selected depending on the skin color of the defendant and the jury. It appears Mr. Cox concedes he could not be fair to a non-black defendant. I wonder if Mr. Cox feels the same way regarding jury makeup based on sex, religion, income, political party, et cetera.