BOSTON (AP) – A federal appeals court has rejected a selection plan designed to produce a more racially balanced jury in the federal death penalty case of Darryl Green and Branden Morris, charged in the 2001 gang killing of Terrell Gethers.

Judge Nancy Gertner had ordered court administrators to send additional summonses to certain ZIP codes when mailings are returned as undeliverable.

In her ruling last month, Gertner said targeting those ZIP codes may increase the likelihood that black jurors will be in the jury pool for the trial. Without the change, Gertner said, an all-white or largely white jury is likely to decide not only the guilt or innocence of the two black defendants, but whether they live or die.

U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan appealed Gertner’s ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Friday rejected Gertner’s plan, saying it violates an “equal odds” requirement of the existing jury selection plan by restricting the second drawing of names of potential jurors to a small number of ZIP codes.

The judge’s plan could also cause confusion by creating competing jury selection procedures in the Boston federal district courts, the appeals court ruled.

“Imagine that the district judge in question adopted this new, ZIP-code-oriented approach and that another judge in the district insisted on using the pre-existing practice,” the court said in its ruling.

“Quite apart from the mechanical complications – normally an array is summoned for multiple trials before different judges – this would result in some defendants getting juries selected under one regime and others under a significantly different one.”

Sullivan hailed the appeals court ruling.

“It is critically important that judges comply with the approved jury selection process to ensure uniformity within the district. To do otherwise creates the potential for disparity and unfairness,” Sullivan said Friday in a written statement.

Randy Gioia, a lawyer representing Darryl Green, said he was disappointed.

“The court had an opportunity to take a courageous stance to remedy a long-standing problem in the trial courts,” he said. “The real problem is whether it comes down to a trial in a death penalty case where a prosecutor is asking an all-white jury in the state of Massachusetts to execute a black man. Hopefully that will never be the case.”

In her ruling, Gertner had agreed with Gioia and the defense attorney for Morris, who argued resident lists used to summon potential jurors are more likely to be inaccurate and outdated in cities and towns with the highest percentage of blacks.

Gertner said poorer communities have few financial resources to update their resident lists or follow up on summonses that are returned as undeliverable.

The appeals court agreed that it was a “cause for concern” that the percentage of proportion of blacks who return jury questionnaires is half the percentage to be expected from their presence in the division of the district concerned in cases where black defendants have been indicted for major crimes.

But the court said it’s up to the district court – not one judge – to revise its jury selection plan.

“No one is entitled automatically to be tried by a jury of persons comprised of his or her own race, religion or gender,” the court said.

Gioia said he’s still hopeful the district court will decide on its own to revamp the jury selection process.

The ruling could put a chill in attempts to produce juries that are more racially balanced, according to David Yas, publisher and editor of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

“What Judge Gertner was proposing wasn’t revolutionary or drastic,” Yas said. “All she did is suggest that there be extra measures taken to reach areas where people weren’t responding. Some defendants have their lives on the line and it’s not too much to ask to take a few extra steps to make sure they have a fair jury.”