Last week, 85 people filed into Alameda County Superior Court in downtown Oakland. They’d been called to serve as jurors for a case in which the defendant, an Oakland woman named Eboni Route, faces misdemeanor charges of battery against a police officer and resisting arrest.
US and Iran dig in and ramp up threats as war rages with no end in sightJudge disqualifies trio of lawyers tapped to lead New Jersey's federal prosecutor's officeSharing a stage, Justices Jackson and Kavanaugh spar over Supreme Court orders favoring Trump2-time Olympic champs Chock and Bates withdraw from ice dance worlds after Milan Cortina OlympicsTommy DeCarlo, who became longtime singer of Boston after a Myspace tribute, dies at 60US stocks hold steadier as Wall Street waits for the next signal on how long war with Iran may lastToucan seen flying around Sin City has been rescuedChallenging your brain helps keep it healthy.
Here's how to do itAfter an Iranian drone strike, a photographer captures this quiet human momentAs Iran war shakes energy system, some see powerful argument for renewable energyAn effort to remedy harm from a race-based kidney test helps Black patients seeking transplantsSome people tape their mouths shut at night. Doctors wish they wouldn'tCallers to Washington state hotline press 2 for Spanish and get accented AI English insteadPope announces resignation of US bishop accused of embezzling $270K from California parishLa guerra con Irán asesta otro golpe a la economía globalAbout 140 US troops wounded in Iran war, 8 severely, Pentagon saysJudge disqualifies trio of lawyers tapped to lead New Jersey's federal prosecutor's officeSharing a stage, Justices Jackson and Kavanaugh spar over Supreme Court orders favoring Trump2-time Olympic champs Chock and Bates withdraw from ice dance worlds after Milan Cortina OlympicsTommy DeCarlo, who became longtime singer of Boston after a Myspace tribute, dies at 60US stocks hold steadier as Wall Street waits for the next signal on how long war with Iran may lastToucan seen flying around Sin City has been rescuedChallenging your brain helps keep it healthy. Here's how to do itAfter an Iranian drone strike, a photographer captures this quiet human momentAs Iran war shakes energy system, some see powerful argument for renewable energyAn effort to remedy harm from a race-based kidney test helps Black patients seeking transplantsSome people tape their mouths shut at night. Doctors wish they wouldn'tCallers to Washington state hotline press 2 for Spanish and get accented AI English insteadPope announces resignation of US bishop accused of embezzling $270K from California parishLa guerra con Irán asesta otro golpe a la economía globalRace and Ethnicity Alameda County Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods walks away from the podium during a meeting of the county Board of Supervisors’ Public Protection Committee at the Alameda County Administration Building, in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. Last week, 85 people filed into Alameda County Superior Court in downtown Oakland. They’d been called to serve as jurors for a case in which the defendant, an Oakland woman named Eboni Route, faces misdemeanor charges of battery against a police officer and resisting arrest. Each prospective juror stood a roughly 1-in-7 chance of being picked for the trial. But over the course of two days, as the judge, prosecutors, and Route’s defense attorney got to work questioning the jury pool and excusing roughly two dozen forAfter a couple dozen prospective jurors had been allowed to go home, Janeek Mollique, Route’s attorney, scanned the room — and it dawned on her that there were no Black people left. That meant Route, who is Black, would stand trial with no chance that a single Black person would end up on her jury. On Thursday, Chief Public Defender Brendon Woods appeared in court alongside Mollique and Charles Denton, an assistant public defender. Mollique and Denton, a veteran attorney with nearly three decades of courtroom experience, requested that Judge Pelayo Llamas call in a new panel of potential jurors, including at least one Black person. That way, there would be a chance, however small, that the jury selected from this group could include someone Black. Denton and Mollique argued that would minimize any perception of bias.Deputy District Attorney James Logan, who supervises the DA’s misdemeanor trial team, objected. If the public defender’s office thought the jury selection process was flawed or the composition of the jury pool a problem, Logan said, they would be free to file an appeal once the jury reached a verdict. Meanwhile, Logan said, Route’s trial should proceed. He cited aDenton responded that it would be far easier for the judge to simply call in a new jury pool. Llamas sided with the prosecution, defending the court’s process of calling in prospective jurors and saying he wasn’t willing to assume “that the jurors who show up, because they’re not the same race as Ms. Route, are going to be biased against her.”“The public defender’s office refuses to proceed with this case to trial,” he said. The tension in the courtroom was palpable. “This panel is not a jury of our client’s peers,” Woods continued. “You cannot expect her to have a fair trial without a single Black person on the panel.”Route’s case, an otherwise unremarkable misdemeanor trial, had brought to a head a long-simmering debate in Alameda County about juries.about the issue. This pattern, he said, is especially concerning in Oakland, where roughly 1 in 5 of the city’s residents are Black, but where it’s not uncommon for juries to lack any Black representation. When a jury’s members don’t reflect the community, WoodsLegal experts mostly agree. The Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the right to a trial by an impartial jury of one’s peers, has been interpreted, since the 1960s, to mean that juries should be composed of a cross-section of the community where the alleged crime was committed. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are allowed to question and exclude jurors who show obvious bias and for other reasons — but they’re not allowed to get rid of jurors simply because of their race or because they’re members of another protected class.Black people, in particular, continue to be wrongfully excluded from juries because of either intentional discrimination or implicit bias, mainly by prosecutors. According to aBut there’s another problem that undermines jury diversity, one that starts with the process by which people are summoned to serve.by the ACLU of Northern California found that Alameda County “suffers from systemic underrepresentation of African-American and Latino jurors in its jury pools.” The problem, according to the study, started with who was registered for jury duty. While Black people made up 18% of the county’s eligible jury pool, only 8% appeared for jury duty. Various barriers to serving got in the way.to increase pay for jurors from $12 to $100 per day and increase travel reimbursements. The idea was to make it economically easier for low-income people to serve on trials that can last for weeks or longer. Alameda County was one of several that took part in the program. Last year, however, Gov. Gavin Newsom Paul Rosynsky, a spokesperson for the Alameda County Superior Court, said the court was “disappointed” by the state’s decision. “The court believed the pilot program could have provided valuable information regarding jury demographics and incentives to attract a more diverse pool,” he told The Oaklandside by email. Demographic data from the pilot program, which ran for six months, has yet to be released publicly, Rosynsky said. The National Center for the State Courts collected that data under a contract with the Judicial Council of California. The district attorney’s office did not respond to questions from The Oaklandside about its views on jury diversity, the jury selection process, and Route’s case in particular., arguing that the absence of Black people in the pool of potential jurors violated Route’s constitutional right to a fair trial. The Racial Justice Act, Woods argued, gives judges the authority to dismiss a jury panel and call in a new one if the existing pool would not lead to a fair trial. After Llamas denied the public defender’s request — and Woods refused to move forward with the trial — Llamas sought to strike a compromise. He said he would ask the court administration to call in a new group of potential jurors for the case, but said he wouldn’t excuse the pool of jurors the court had already brought in. On Friday morning, 56 additional people walked into Llamas’ courtroom with jury summons cards in their hands. Of those, four appeared to be Black, according to an estimate by The Oaklandside. One of them asked to be excused for hardship because she was recovering from an injury, but the judge denied her request., the process in which the attorneys and the judge question potential jurors to ensure that they can serve without bias. According to the public defender’s team, the odds of a Black person ending up on the jury are still extremely small. That’s because the judge plans to start voir dire with only those from the first prospective juror pool. The court will move on to the new group that appears to include four Black people, only if there are still seats left to fill. Woods and Mollique, the deputy public defender, asked the judge to combine both juror groups, arguing that merging and randomizing the names would increase the odds that at least one Black person would be seated as a juror.Mollique criticized the prosecution for not taking a stance, and for its earlier objection to a new pool: “We’re in a situation where our very reasonable request is being objected to, and it’s making the defense feel as if the people are trying to whitewash this jury,” she said. Llamas rejected the defense’s request. And the defender’s office said it plans to proceed with the trial. Denton said if Woods refused to proceed with the case, it could have been grounds for the judge to hold him in contempt of court, which carries the risk of jail time. But Woods is glad he pushed back. “The fact that we were about to have a trial in Oakland, California, with a Black client who’s pregnant, and the charges were that she assaulted a police officer and resisted arrest, without a single Black juror, required my intervention,” he told The Oaklandside.
General News Brendon Woods Black Experience Trials Oakland California News Partner Race And Ethnicity U.S. News Charles Denton James Logan Gavin Newsom Paul Rosynsky Race And Ethnicity U.S. News
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why are crows pecking away at a freshly painted wall in Alameda?The birds could be drawn to paint because they like its taste or the fact that it attracts insects
Read more »
Why are crows pecking away at a freshly painted wall in Alameda?The birds could be drawn to paint because they like its taste or the fact that it attracts insects
Read more »
Deputies search for missing 16-year-old Jaslyn Garcia last seen early Monday morningBEXAR COUNTY, Texas — Deputies are searching for 16-year-old Jaslyn Garcia last seen leaving her home in West Bexar County.According to the Bexar County Sheriff
Read more »
Avian flu detected in dead birds in a Middletown park, Bucks County officials sayCounty officials posted a warning on the Bucks County Parks and Recreation Facebook page last week, cautioning residents not to touch or interact with wildlife in county parks.
Read more »
AUSD Notes: Classified workers, Alameda schools sign tentative dealsNate is an East Bay community papers editor for the East Bay Times and Bay Area News Group.
Read more »
Black ice causes 15-car pileup on Mukilteo Speedway in Snohomish CountyAward-winning broadcast journalist with 30+ years of experience covering stories that impact Washington — from major investigations to regional news.
Read more »