Justices Forbid Systematic Jury Exclusion of Latinos

Condemning even the appearance of bias against Latinos, the state Supreme Court today ruled that prosecutors cannot systematically exclude people with Spanish surnames from juries.

The ruling is the first clear statement by the court that Latinos may not be excluded from juries based solely on their ethnic background. The court said the standard will help ensure that defendants get fair trials because their juries will reflect communities from which they are drawn.

“Of equal import to our overall concept of justice,” the court said, the standard “serves to legitimize the judgments of the courts, promote citizen participation in government and prevent further stigmatizing of minority groups.”

The ruling came in a Tulare County case in which the prosecutor excluded half a dozen jurors with Spanish surnames, over the defense lawyer’s objections. In an opinion by Justice Cruz Reynoso, the court noted that 30% of the county’s residents have Spanish surnames.

Conviction Upset

By a 5-2 vote, the court overturned the murder conviction of Jeremiah Trevino, who was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the 1979 murder of Rollo (Ted) Hinton. Trevino most likely will be retried. The trial judge overturned the jury’s guilty verdict against a second defendant, Leonard L. Rivas, and the high court said Rivas cannot be retried.

“Trevino and Rivas are Hispanic,” Reynoso wrote. “The victim of the crime was Caucasian, as were most of the members of the jury. The district attorney exercised peremptory challenges to remove six Hispanics from the jury after asking them few if any questions.”

In a partial dissent, Justice Otto M. Kaus said that while he agreed that Latinos may not be excluded, the Supreme Court should allow trial judges to decide whether the prosecutor has legitimate reasons for excluding people from juries. The trial judge in Trevino’s case accepted as legitimate the prosecutor’s explanations of why he removed the six people with Spanish surnames. Justice Malcolm Lucas sided with Kaus.