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Seeking black jurors
...But Callahan -- a Caucasian who has eight adopted African-American children, and who had announced at the outset of jury selection his determination "to have a jury that represents the racial composition of Wayne County" -- wasn't convinced the defense team's motives were racist. He thought defense lawyers were being sincere when they expressed concern that the twice-widowed Greene, who was also mourning the recent death of her mother, might be overly sympathetic to the plaintiff's loss of a loved one.

And so, in a moment of on-the-record candor that he may be regretting, Callahan said he was simultaneously 1) rejecting the plaintiff's argument that Greene's exclusion was racially motivated and 2) seating her over the defendant's objections.

The law requiring him to permit peremptory challenges unless they were overtly racist was too narrow, the judge complained. "Until either removed from the bench by the disciplinary committee or ordered to have a new trial," he declared, "I am going to seek to have this proportional representation on the juries that hear cases in this court."...