Criminal justice reform has been a priority for Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly in recent years, and this year lawmakers are moving closer to restoring the rights of ex-offenders to serve on criminal and civil juries.
Monday night the state Senate will vote on its version of the bill, which has passed before with the help of Republican votes. The House of Delegates has also passed similar bills before, but they’ve never gotten on the same page.
This year, House sponsor Wanika Fisher started with a version of the bill that passed in the Senate in 2021, which excluded ex-offenders with new charges pending.
“Maryland has led the way with returning felons,” Fisher said during a House committee hearing last month. “This bill is the last piece of full citizenship in allowing individuals to be a part of our pools for jury service.”
Fisher, a delegate who represents parts of College Park and Adelphi, argued the current law disproportionately harms Black residents.
“As you know, 80% of inmates in Maryland prisons are African Americans,” Fisher said. “Which means African Americans are being disenfranchised from being part of the jury selection process.
“I think this bill is going to be restorative justice,” she added. “It restores our civic engagement.”
That earned pushback from Republican delegate Lauren Arikan, whose district runs along the Baltimore County-Harford County line.
“Insinuating that it is somehow impossible to find people because we have a higher rate of incarceration for some black people is a little bit disturbing,” Arkin said. “And I would say not accurate at all.”
Arikan said many Marylanders who are people of color and have no criminal history serve on the state’s juries everyday.
“So it’s really a little bit disturbing to hear that, for some reason, we have to pass this bill or our juries won’t have [the] appropriate demographic makeup,” she said.
Fisher responded to that claim, saying her prior comments about civic engagement weren’t about whether Black people, or other people of color, are serving on juries.
Instead, Fisher argued it’s about re-enfranchising individuals and aiding their return to society after paying their dues, while “also making sure that no matter what the color of the defendant is, it is a cross-section of their community that is serving on the jury.”
Joe Riley, the legislative chair of the Maryland state’s attorney’s association and the Republican state’s attorney from Caroline County, didn’t see it the same way as Fisher.
“Issues of re-enfranchisement and civic engagement are incredibly important and they are something we support. However they are not what this bill is about,” said Riley. “It’s simply a bill for defense attorneys.”
