Opinion ID: 614681
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Juror Hernandez

Text: Hernandez expressed a strong view towards the death penalty, responding explicitly and unequivocally that she believed in the death penalty. Also, Hernandez worked for the probation department. Thus, even if defense counsel subjectively believed the prosecution’s peremptory challenge against Hernandez was based on group bias, defense counsel had good reason to allow a pro-death penalty juror to be removed from the jury. In his comparative analysis as to Juror Hernandez, Carrera does not actually compare Hernandez’s questions and answers to any other juror. Instead, Carrera contends that Hernandez’s role as a “group counselor housekeeper” in the Kern County probation department was a pretext for striking Hernandez based on her Hispanic surname. Even accepting this contention as true, and assuming defense counsel reasonably believed Hernandez was stricken for discriminatory reasons, this does not prove defense counsel performed deficiently in not bringing a Wheeler motion. As Carrera himself recognizes, Hernandez affirmatively declared her support for the death penalty—defense counsel would be happy to see Hernandez go. Thus, Carrera has not carried his burden in proving that any reasonable criminal defense attorney would have made a Wheeler motion under these circumstances.