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E. Inclusion of Minorities and Women

1. African American Jurors

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrision wrote in his Liberator in the June 1860 issue: "The fact that colored citizens of Worcester (Francis U. Clough and William H. Jenkins) had been recently drawn as jurymen--the first such instances in the history of Massachusetts--was appropriately commented upon and hailed as an encouraging sign of the times." As discussed above, it was not until 1979 that the Supreme Judicial Court prohibited the use of peremptory challenges for the purpose of excluding black jurors.

2. Women Jurors

Women did not become eligible for jury service in Massachusetts until 1950.⁽⁴⁾  In 1920, soon after the Nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution enfranchised women, the Massachusetts House of Representatives asked the Supreme Judicial Court for an advisory opinion regarding whether that amendment required women to be eligible to serve as jurors. The Court responded that women would be eligible for jury service only if the legislature enacted a new law that specifically provided for women jurors.

Following lengthy legislative and political battles,⁽⁵⁾ Massachusetts enacted in 1949 a bill making women eligible for jury service. However, this law permitted a woman to choose to have her name omitted from the jury list and to be excused from rape and child abuse cases if she would likely be "embarrassed" by hearing the testimony or discussing it in the jury room. When this limited-eligibility law went into effect in 1950, Massachusetts was the 39^th state to permit women to be seated on a jury.

In 1975, the United States Supreme Court ruled that excluding women from the jury pool violated a person's right to a fair trial by a representative segment of the community. In 1979, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that particular traits, including race and gender, could not be used to strike potential jurors. This landmark decision, Commonwealth v. Soares, is considered to mark the end of permissible gender bias in the selection of jurors in Massachusetts.

The innovative one day/one trial legislation of 1982 significantly expanded the number of women eligible for jury service. Because this legislation denied nearly all exemptions, virtually all citizens now had to serve if summonsed. Despite its late inclusion of women jurors, Massachusetts was the first state to institute the one day/one trial system statewide.