Conviction in Murder Set Aside for Bias : Latinos Excluded Unfairly on Trial Jury, Court Decides

A state appellate court in Santa Ana on Tuesday reversed the 1983 murder conviction of a 42-year-old Latino man, accusing prosecutors of racial bias for excluding all Latinos from the jury that heard the evidence against him.

While some defense lawyers hailed the decision as a warning to judges to take a closer look before allowing prosecutors to excuse Latinos from juries, the Orange County district attorney’s office reacted sharply, claiming that defense lawyers are guilty of similar biases in choosing jurors.

Gilberto Mora, whose case would never have reached the 4th District Court of Appeal if not for his own tenacity, was convicted of second-degree murder in the Sept. 23, 1982, shooting death of an acquaintance, Juan Medrano, at the victim’s La Habra home. The shooting occurred after the two argued over a poker game.

At Mora’s trial in May, 1983, Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Manoukian used peremptory challenges to exclude all five Latinos who were on the jury panels for that trial.

Used Interpreter

Mora speaks no English and used an interpreter throughout his trial.

When Mora’s attorney, Gerald G. Garlow, accused Manoukian of a racially motivated strategy, Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald asked her to justify her challenges of the five Latinos. Manoukian, who also challenged numerous prospective jurors who were not Latinos, gave a variety of responses about the five: some were too young, one was unemployed, several lacked any decision-making experience and they all lacked supervisory experience.

But Justice Thomas F. Crosby, who wrote the appellate court opinion, called her challenges “highly suspect.”

“We conclude she failed to establish that any of the five Latinos was rejected for a reason other than an impermissible group bias against Latinos,” Crosby wrote.

David L. Tucker Jr., an Ocotillo attorney who represented Mora on appeal, claims that prosecutors generally like to keep ethnic minorities off juries because they are less conservative.

“I hope this decision will make prosecutors sit up and take notice,” Tucker said. “How can Mr. Mora receive a jury of his peers if Latinos are deliberately kept off the jury?”

But Orange County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright called the Mora decision unfair.

“It ought to work both ways,” he said. “When the defense lawyer has a Caucasian client, he’ll try to keep blacks and Latinos off the jury. I don’t see anybody upset about that.”

Enright added that he did not believe that Manoukian’s primary interest was simply keeping Latinos off the jury.

‘Gut Feeling’

“I think Latino jurors can be just as fair against a Latino defendant as anyone else,” Enright said. “But if a prosecutor has a gut feeling about someone, then he should use his peremptory challenge.”

The appellate court also raised another group bias issue, noting that Manoukian admitted that she deliberately tried to keep young people off the jury.

While admitting that the law is unsettled in that area, Crosby noted that most of the people accused of crime are young.

“A jury of one’s peers ought to at least include an opportunity for some representation from the same generation as part of a cross-section of the community,” Crosby wrote.

The vote on the Latino issue was unanimous, 3 to 0. But Justice Sheila P. Sonenshine dissented on the age-discrimination question.

Mora almost didn’t have an appeal at all. He sat in Soledad state prison for almost two years before writing to the Orange County Superior Court clerk, asking why he had not heard from Garlow, who was handling his appeal. When told he had no appeal pending, Mora wrote to the Santa Ana appellate court.

“Is it because I’m just another poor Mexican not born in this country?” Mora asked in seeking an explanation.

Presiding Justice John K. Trotter Jr. reinstated his appeal and demanded an explanation of why Garlow had not stayed on the case.

Garlow sent an immediate reply: Mora’s wife had dismissed him, but apparently Mora had never been told. Tucker was appointed soon after that.