Supreme Court of the United States, 1967

Jones v. Georgia

Supreme Court of the United States · Decided October 16, 1967 · Per Curiam

389 U.S. 24; 88 S. Ct. 4; 19 L. Ed. 2d 25; 1967 U.S. LEXIS 503 (United States Reports)

Counsel

Wilbur D. Owens, Jr., for petitioner., Arthur K. Bolton, Attorney General of Georgia, G. Ernest Tidwell, Executive Assistant Attorney General, and Marion 0. Gordon, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

Cases that cite this one

135 later published cases cite this decision. The 25 that cite it most often are listed here.

United States of America Ex Rel. Bruce Barksdale v. Frank Blackburn, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary (5th Cir. 1981)
United States of America Ex Rel. Bruce Barksdale v. Frank Blackburn, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary (5th Cir. 1980)
Catherine Foster, on Behalf of Themselves and All Others Similarly Situated v. James L. Sparks, Etc. (5th Cir. 1975)
State v. Ramseur (N.J. 1987)
Gutierrez v. State (Tex. App. 1997)
Castaneda v. Partida (Supreme Court of the United States 1977)
State v. Elie (La. 1970)
Hill v. State (Ala. Crim. App. 1976)
United States v. Zirpolo (3d Cir. 1971)
United States v. Orange (10th Cir. 2006)
United States v. Michael D. Shinault (10th Cir. 1998)
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Bertha Alicia ESQUIVEL, Defendant-Appellant (9th Cir. 1996)
Thomas C. Ramseur v. Howard C. Beyer, Superintendent, New Jersey State Prison, Robert Del Tufo, New Jersey Attorney General (3d Cir. 1992)
Warren McCleskey Cross-Appellant v. Ralph Kemp, Warden, Cross-Appellee (11th Cir. 1985)
James Barber v. James Ponte (1st Cir. 1985)
Ford v. Commonwealth (Ky. 1983)
People v. Bonilla (Ill. App. Ct. 1983)
Mattie Lee Bryant v. Louie L. Wainwright, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections (11th Cir. 1982)
Waters v. State (Ark. 1980)
Espinoza v. State (Tex. Crim. App. 1980)
Hugh H. Tennon, III v. Dr. James Ricketts, Warden (5th Cir. 1978)
Taylor v. State (Ind. 1973)
Gatchett v. State (Ind. 1973)
John William Smith v. Howard Yeager, Warden, New Jersey State Prison (3d Cir. 1972)
Boucher v. Bomhoff (Alaska 1972)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion

Per Curiam.

The motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis and the petition for a writ of certiorari are granted.

Petitioner appealed his conviction for murder to the Georgia Supreme Court where he sought reversal on the ground, among others, that the evidence relevant to his claim of systematic exclusion of Negroes from the grand and petit juries drawn in the county established a prima facie case of the denial of equal protection within our *25 decision in Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U. S. 545. * The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the conviction stating that Whitus was distinguishable because “public officers are presumed to have discharged their sworn official duties. . . . Under the testimony in this case we can not assume that the jury commissioners did not eliminate prospective jurors on the basis of their competency to serve, rather than because of racial discrimination.” 223 Ga. 157, 162, 154 S. E. 2d 228, 232.

We hold that the burden upon the State to explain “the disparity between the percentage of Negroes on the tax digest and those on the venires,” Whitus, supra, at 552, was not met by the Georgia Supreme Court’s reliance on the stated presumptions. See Arnold v. North Carolina, 376 U. S. 773; Eubanks v. Louisiana, 356 U. S. 584; Williams v. Georgia, 349 U. S. 375; Avery v. Georgia, 345 U. S. 559; Cassell v. Texas, 339 U. S. 282; Norris v. Alabama, 294 U. S. 587. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Georgia Supreme Court and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with our opinion.

It is so ordered.

The record supports the following comparison of the salient facts in Whitus and in petitioner’s case:

Over 21 population Whitus 42.6% Negro men Petitioner’s case 30.7% Negro

Jury Commissioners White (apparently) White

Source of juror names Tax Digests separated and identified as to race 3 Tax Digests, two of which separated and identified as to race

Taxpayers 27.1% Negro 19.7% Negro

Negro jurors 9.1% grand jury venire 7.8% petit jury venire 5.0% of jury list and box (1 Negro was on the grand jury which in-dieted petitioner)

Rebuttal evidence by State None None

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.