Gonzales v. Markland

Criminal defendant convicted of manslaughter challenged her conviction on the grounds that the use of a jury district, which included residents of two counties, unconstitutionally diluted the percentage of prospective Native American jurors available for voir dire. Held that the use of a jury district for manslaughter trial comprised of two counties did not violate the “county or district” terminology of art. 6, § 7 of the South Dakota Constitution, granting the right to a trial by a “jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed”; the defendant was entitled to a petit jury either from the county where the killing occurred or from the overall jury district, which would necessarily include residents from both counties from which the jury was selected. Also held that the disparity between the overall Native American population of the combined districts (29%) and the makeup of jury pool (22%) was well below the 15% threshold for finding a violation of the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community.