Last week, 85 people filed into Alameda County Superior Court in downtown Oakland. They’d been called to serve as jurors for a case in which the defendant, an Oakland woman named Eboni Route, faces misdemeanor charges of battery against a police officer and resisting arrest.
Each prospective juror stood a roughly 1-in-7 chance of being picked for the trial. But over the course of two days, as the judge, prosecutors, and Route’s defense attorney got to work questioning the jury pool and excusing roughly two dozen for hardships — when serving on a jury might lead to lost wages, for example — a problem emerged.
After a couple dozen prospective jurors had been allowed to go home, Janeek Mollique, Route’s attorney, scanned the room — and it dawned on her that there were no Black people left…