Michel v. Louisiana

Mr. Justice Clark delivered the opinion of the Court.

Louisiana requires that objections to a grand jury be raised before the expiration of the third judicial day following the end of the grand jury’s term or before trial, whichever is earlier.[1] In these cases we are asked to [*93] decide whether this statute as applied violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The three petitioners, all Negroes sentenced to death for aggravated rape, make no attack on the composition of the petit jury nor on the fairness of their trials but challenge the composition of the grand juries which indicted them on the ground that there was a systematic exclusion of Negroes from the panels. No hearing was held on these allegations because the lower courts found that the question had been waived. In each case the Supreme Court of Louisiana affirmed, 225 La. 1040, 74 So. 2d 207, and 226 La. 201, 75 So. 2d 333, and we granted certiorari, 348 U. S. 936 and 950, because of the importance of the issues involved.

Grand juries in Orleans Parish are impaneled in September and March to serve for six months. Since § 202 of the Louisiana Criminal Code, as interpreted, requires a defendant to object to the grand jury before three judicial days after its term, the time to raise such objections may vary from a minimum of three days — if the defendant is indicted on the last day of the term — to a much longer period if he is indicted during the term. Section 284 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure provides that in any case such objections must be made before arraignment.