Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Court to Weigh Any Race Bias in Juries

The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a white criminal defendant may exclude blacks from his jury. In accepting the case of an Albany, Ga., store owner accused of assaulting two black customers, the justices set the stage for forbidding any use of race as a criterion in jury selection. Until recent years, both prosecutors and defense lawyers were free to reject potential jurors through peremptory challenges for which no reason had to be given. In 1986, the court ruled in a Kentucky case that prosecutors must explain any challenge in which there is “inference” that a black is being excluded because of race. The rule has been applied to white jurors in criminal cases and blacks in civil cases, but not to criminal defendants.