Is an impartial jury an impossibility?

A Riverhead, New York court is struggling to select a jury of impartial, unbiased members in the case of Marcelo Lucero. The 37 year old Ecuadorian was stabbed to death in the Long Island town of Patchogue in late 2008. The case has been classified as a hate crime against illegal day workers in the area. Prospective jurors have been hard to come by given sentiment in the region about illegal immigration, as well as people’s proximity to information on the case. In the small village, it is difficult to find a juror who does not already have an opinion on the matter.


This lends itself to a much larger, national question regarding jury selection and impartiality. In this day and age of instant information overload, how feasible is it to select a jury of one’s peers who can be fair in their verdict? Opinion pieces (the present one included) seek to sway the minds of readers. At the least, they certainly color how one dissects an issue.

Is it going to be necessary to have jurors come from areas disinterested in local topics? Will this Riverhead trial have jurors from Omaha or San Diego to create an impartial atmosphere? Will that measure even be enough to keep personal opinions out of the court room?