Opinion ID: 1133490
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Fair Cross Section

Text: {100} House asserts that the State's choice of venue deprived him of his right to a jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 527, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975). Though the phrase fair cross section does not appear in either the New Mexico or the United States Constitution, it has been held to be implicit in the right to a fair trial. See N.M. Const. art. II, § 14 (impartial jury); N.M. Const. art. II, § 18 (due process); U.S. Const. amend. VI (impartial jury); see also Holland v. Illinois, 493 U.S. 474, 480, 110 S.Ct. 803, 107 L.Ed.2d 905 (1990) (implicit). House's argument is somewhat unclear, but he seems to be contending that the State, by choosing a venue with a small Native American population, has racially distorted the jury pool, and has deprived him of a fair cross section of citizens from whom a fair-minded jury could be selected. The purposeful conduct of the State has, as House says, dramatically diluted the representation of the defendant's race within the cross section of the particular community represented by the venire. The practical consequence of House's interpretation of the fair-cross-section principle would be an increased likelihood of representation by Native Americans on the petit jury in this case. {101} Once again, House is asking us to intermingle incompatible principles that apply variously to the seating of a petit jury, the composition of the venire, and the selection of a venue. The fair-cross-section requirement applies neither to the venue nor the petit jury. It addresses the constitutional fight to a venire which fairly represents the community from which it is drawn. Thus, there is no requirement that petit juries actually chosen must mirror the community and reflect the various distinctive groups in the population. Defendants are not entitled to a jury of any particular composition. Taylor, 419 U.S. at 538, 95 S.Ct. 692. It is the venire from which the petit jury is chosen that must constitute a representative cross section of the community in which the trial takes place. See Aragon, 109 N.M. at 198-99, 784 P.2d at 17-18. {102} The use of peremptory challenges by the parties to exclude individuals thought to be inclined against their interests is likely to result in a jury that does not mirror the community. See Holland, 493 U.S. at 480, 110 S.Ct. 803. However, the purpose of the fair-cross-section requirement is to assure, not a petit jury that includes members of the defendant's race or that represents the community from which it is drawn, but rather an impartial petit jury. See Id. Thus, Judge Blackmer, noting that Doņa Ana County has a smaller Native American population than Taos, emphasized that the determining factor is not ethnicity, but rather whether the jurors are qualified and impartial. Venue Order, slip op. at 18 (Finding of Fact 21(D)). {103} Just as the fair-cross-section requirement has no bearing on the racial mix of a petit jury, it does not affect the considerations involved in a change of venue. It refers only to the composition of the venire once a venue has been selected. Nothing in our law demands that the ethnic makeup of a new venue be similar to that of any of the preceding venues. The trial court may in its discretion determine, when selecting a new venue, that a fair trial in a particular case will be impossible unless ethnic proportions remain unchanged. But there is no requirement that the fair cross section of the old venue mirror the fair cross section of the new venue. In New Mexico, such a consideration is left to the discretion of the court. The fair-cross-section principle would have no relevance whatsoever in our review of the choice of a venue; it is relevant only to the selection of the jury pool from that venue.