Lonzie Cox – 12/16/09

This page was last updated on January 2, 2010.

Judge’s jury ruling misses the point; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; December 16, 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.

“‘Men often stumble over the truth, pause, then hurry off as if nothing had happened.’ - Winston Churchill.

“‘Who do you believe - me or your lying eyes?’ - Richard Pryor.

“With all due respect to Judge John P. Dohanich, his ruling that the exclusion of blacks from jury duty was not backed by evidence is alarming. The judge missed the point and thereby waved off an important civil rights issue.”

[RWC] This is Mr. Cox’s second letter on this topic in less than two weeks.

“Proving intent is impossible. No one is ever going to admit excluding certain groups from juries. Jury Commissioner Rose Collella said she ‘hadn’t seen many blacks on juries, though the matter had been discussed.’”

[RWC] There is no jury commissioner named “Rose Collella.” According to the Beaver County website we have two jury commissioners, Dorothy Colella and Peggy Rose. The story “No changes to jury system” is the primary source of this letter and Mr. Cox made at least two errors when he referred to it. First, Mr. Cox merged Dorothy Colella and Peggy Rose into the fictional “Rose Collella.” Second, while “hadn’t seen many blacks on juries, though the matter had been discussed” was in the news story, it was not a quote.

“Dohanich must have noticed this also. And if he hasn’t noticed, the next question should be, why not?

“The absence of minorities in the jury box may be so common that it isn’t noticed anymore, and that invisibility could also contribute to other problems, such as the near impossibility of obtaining jobs for blacks in the county, especially at the courthouse, even though we pay taxes, too. Out of sight is out of mind.

“Serving on juries is a constitutional right, and as citizens, taxpayers and voters we are entitled to be called to serve on an equal basis, no matter what system is used.”

[RWC] “Jury Commissioner Rose Collella said she ‘hadn’t seen many blacks on juries, though the matter had been discussed.’” Ignoring the fact there is no jury commissioner named Rose Collella, no kidding, Sherlock; I’d be surprised if it were any different. Why? As I noted in my previous critique, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks are only about 6.3% of Beaver County’s population. 6.3% means a 12-person jury would have only about 0.76 black jurors on average.

I’ll repeat my observation from the previous critique. His letters on this topic imply 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.