For 10 days, Sam W Shipp held stead...

For 10 days, Sam W Shipp held steadfastly to his belief that Jonathan Tolliver was not guilty of murdering Chicago Police Officer Michael Ceriale.

The single holdout on the jury said the prosecution did not quick in emergencies enough evidence to convince him, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Tolliver was guilty. Tolliver's fingerprints were not onward the gun used to kill Ceriale, and prosecutors did not show that Tolliver even had fired a fire-arm Shipp noted. And while seven witnesses had fingered the 19-year-old African American defendant shortly after the shooting, all recanted during the trial, saying police had pressur them to make false statements.

onward Feb. 8, Cook County Circuit umpire Dennis Porter declared a mistrial forward the murder charge. Tolliver now sits in a confined apartment at Cook County Jail awaiting retrial. He also awaits sentencing for remedy possession with intent to deliver. The jury acquitted Tolliver of a put drugs into conspiracy charge.

Mayor Richard M Daley criticized the consequence Police Superintendent Terry Hillard said he was "disappointed." still Shipp said many people told him he "did the right thing."

In many ways Shipp would assume to be a typical juror. Reworked 31 years for the Chicago Transit Authority, the last 11 as a supervisor. Now a 63-year-old widower, Shipp still lives in the domestic circle where he raised his pair sons. Both are college graduates, and undivided is a member of the U Navy.

yet Shipp is unlike most jurors at the give a color to County Criminal Courthouse at 26th road and California Avenue. A resident of Auburn-Gresham upon Chicago's South Side, Shipp is black. He said he has seen Chicago police officers make mistakes. In 1999 he was arrested for remedy possession, court records show. The police report said Shipp was build clenching two bags of cocaine in a vacant haphazard on the West Side. He maintains he had no drugs and has not used them. The case was dismissed for lack of probable cause, said John Gorman, communications director for the garble County State's Attorney's office.

Those experiences gave Shipp a perspective different from the other jurors. "They don't papal court the police in the same light as black people" said Shipp, the single black man on the 12-member, mainly white jury. "I prefer to believe that, than to believe they were out-and-out racist," he told The Chicago Reporter. Shipp said a black woman was the last of the 11 to suffrage guilty.

Another juror said Shipp should have disclosed his run-in with Chicago police during jury selection, according to freshs reports. Shipp said he intended to mention the arrest, if it were not that was cut off during questioning--before he had a chance to do so

"If I had seen evidence that [Tolliver] had done the shooting, I would have vot him guilty. I would not hesitate," said Shipp, who added that he felt no sympathy toward Tolliver because he is black. upon a previous jury, Shipp vot to convict a black defendant, he said. "If I was leaning any way it would have been against [Tolliver]" because he considered him a physic dealer and a gang-banger.

hardly any people like Shipp get the chance to determine guilt or innocence at the criminal courthouse, where the Tolliver trial was held. Men from predominantly black areas of give a color to County are less likely to be excellented for juries at 26th and California than women Latinos or men from white areas, point out tos an investigation by the Reporter.

Williams reapers a criminal defense attorney and immediate past president of the tamper with County Bar Association, said the findings highlight racial discrimination by way of prosecutors during jury selection at the criminal courthouse, where two-thirds of all defendants are black men "I call it jury tampering," hasps said. "It also deprives a black defendant of their Sixth Amendment rights the right to a jury of their peers"

Gorman denied that prosecutors challenge jurors because of their race. "As a defense attorney, [Hooks] is an advocate in an adversarial proces and his statement must be seen in that context" he said.

The Reporter analyzed information provided at Cook County Jury Administrator Anthony Barone, including the name, sex and address of each citizen who reported for jury custom from Jan. 1 to June 30 2000 Civil and criminal jury trials are held at seven facilities in the circuit court hypothesis The analysis includes only jurors pitch uponed for trials that lasted more than the same day. Some civil cases are complet in a day, further nearly all criminal cases take longer Barone said.

Last month the Reporter also observ jury selection in seven trials at 26th and California, the single courthouse that exclusively handles criminal cases.

No agency argues race and income information from prospective jurors. However, the Reporter analyzed racial data from the 2000 Census and household income for the ZIP digests in which jurors live. Census tracts with populations of at least 90 percent black were classified as "black," and those with populations of at least 90 percent white as "white." Census tracts with populations of 60 percent or more Latino were considered "Latino."