The state Judicial Building.
The Iowa Supreme Court is giving an African-American man more time to show the racial makeup of his jury pool was not fair.
Kenneth Lilly appealed his conviction of first-degree robbery for helping another man rob a bank in Fort Madison in June of 2016, saying the jury pool was not a fair cross-section of the community because no one identified as an African-American.
Lilly’s attorneys argued that things like failing to update addresses or allowing excuses for people to get out of jury duty were a systematic exclusion of some jurors from the pool — and it didn’t produce a representative jury.
The Supreme Court affirmed Lilly’s robbery conviction on the condition that the case goes back to the district court to further review how the jurors were selected, and whether his rights to an impartial jury were violated.
The ruling also impacts a case in Cerro Gordo County where Peter Veal was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempt to commit murder. And in Floyd County, where Antoine Williams appeals his conviction for second-degree murder.
Here’s the Lilly ruling: Jurror-Selection-PDF