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- In "The Midterms" Sam's law school friend who has been a prosecutor, is shown to have "preferred all white jurors" and used peremptory challenges (we think the show said "preemptive challenges") to get them.
- But Rochelle Wasserberger, who is an attorney writes: "with federal and state laws strictly prohibiting the use of a peremptory challenge for
the purpose of eliminating all jurors of a certain protected class, such as
race, it would be very difficult for a prosecutor to use a challenge, other
than a challenge for cause, to remove a black juror because of his race.
What happens more often if the prosecutor is going to try to remove jurors
of one race or another is that he/she comes up with some "cause" why the
jurors should be removed from the panel, and then if one sees a pattern of
this, then that is how it could be discovered. But it is unlikely, VERY
unlikely, due to the sensitivity of the subject, that a judge or defense
attorney would overlook the fact that a prosecutor has used peremptory
challenges on black potential jurors."
- In Episode #43, Leo calls the Secretary of State to "invoke 1070 OAS".
Jason Walling did some searching and contacted a representative of OAS at the State Department ("Richard Miles, I believe. I don't know his title, but the receptionist said he was their political representative, probably . . . at the Permanent Mission to the OAS, U.S. Department of State") and "OAS (Organization of American States) doesn't normally refer to resolutions by number, however one that they do is Res. 1080, not 1070."
- Mr. Walling sent the following information on 1080: "This is taken from a State Dept. web page" - "The info is near the bottom of the history section":
"The promotion of peace and democracy are core OAS concerns. The OAS Unit for Promotion of Democracy (UPD) is entirely dedicated to building, strengthening, and preserving democracy. Charter amendments and Resolution 1080 also enable the OAS to help preserve democracy by mobilizing the hemisphere in the face of threats to democratic rule in a member state.
The 1991 OAS General Assembly created an unprecedented automatic mechanism, known as Resolution 1080, to deter illegal action against democratically elected governments. This resolution requires the Secretary General to convene the Permanent Council and then hemispheric foreign ministers within 10 days after a coup or other interruption of a legitimate, elected government.
Resolution 1080 has been used four times: Following the coup in Haiti in 1991, the "auto-coups" in Peru in 1992 and Guatemala in 1993, and the threat to the government of Paraguay in 1996. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Talbott told the June 1996 OAS General Assembly in Panama that "this organization has moved decisively to defend democracy when it was in peril. In all four cases. . .the long-term benefits for the entire hemisphere are already apparent."
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