The Jack Quatman imbroglio is making painfully clear something The Recorder has been arguing for years: Peremptory challenges in jury selection are a blight on our justice system.

Quatman’s testimony — that he and Judge Stanley Golde colluded to keep Jews off a capital jury — besmirches Quatman, Golde and a district attorney’s office that has stood for ethics and integrity for nearly a century. But the greater shame lies with a criminal justice system that encourages and rewards such behavior.