The juries you typically find in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court do not reflect the diversity of Milwaukee County. And that can have profound consequences for defendants who are people of color.

Duke University recently released a study of jury diversity. They found that in cases with no black people on a jury, black defendants were convicted 81% of the time. When the jury included at least one black person, conviction rates for black defendants dropped by 10%. And roughly 40% of the jury pools they studied had no black members at all.

Their study reflects the experiences of people of color here in Milwaukee County.