U.S. judge files amicus on jury make-up

A report in The Boston Globe discusses the case scheduled to be argued today before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that centers on a plan by U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner to try to get more African-Americans on the jury that will decide the federal death penalty case against two black men from Boston. In an interesting sidebar — one the Globe calls unprecedented — U.S. District Chief Judge William G. Young has filed a brief in support of Gertner’s plan, calling it “a legitimate and a wise exercise of the court’s authority.”