| One of the notes on potential jurors read, “I liked him better than any other Jew But No Way,” then added, “Must Kick, too Risky.”  Illustration by Mike McQuade; Source photographs from Getty / Alameda County District Attorney In California’s Alameda County, which encompasses Oakland and Berkeley, along with other smaller jurisdictions, the district attorney’s office for years maintained an élite group of prosecutors to try capital cases. They were known as the Death Team. As Jennifer Gonnerman reports in this week’s issue, newly released records reveal that some members of this team worked to systematically exclude certain categories of juror, including Jewish and Black citizens, from hearing cases, and, in so doing, denied defendants their constitutional rights to a fair trial. “Prosecutors’ offices are sometimes referred to as ‘black boxes,’ because their inner workings are shielded from public view,” Gonnerman writes. These records give a rare glimpse inside—and their release has led to sentences being changed or overturned, while offering insight into how juries have been assembled in some of the highest-stakes cases in the nation. | 
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