Federal Judge Tosses Gun Case Because Jury Was “Too White”

A Manhattan federal judge tossed an indictment against a Bronx suspect because the jury on his case was too white and not racially diverse.

According to the NY Post, Judge Analisa Torres ruled in favor of defendant William Scott, who said that there was a lack of black and Hispanic people in the grand jury pool that brought the indictment against him.

Scott has been charged with possessing a weapon related to a Bronx shooting. His lawyer brought the argument that because his client was charged in the White Plains division instead of the district’s Manhattan division, which is more diverse.

“Defendant has produced clear statistical evidence of underrepresentation of Black and Latinx individuals in the pool from which his grand jury was drawn, and a jury selection process that was susceptible to abuse,” Torres said.

Prosecutors claim that they had moved the case to White Plains “amidst a global pandemic that suspended grand juries across the country.” However, Torres said that their argument failed to bring up the Manhatten division.

As a result, the indictment against Scott was dropped.