Opinion ID: 2563933
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Grand Jury Venire

Text: Defendant contends that the indictment must be quashed and her convictions reversed because she was indicted by a grand jury from which persons 70 years of age and older were excluded systematically. She contends the exclusion of such persons violated her right to a grand jury drawn from a representative cross-section of the community under the Sixth Amendment to the federal Constitution and article I, section 16 of the California Constitution. She also contends the San Mateo County Jury Commissioner's Office failed to follow state law in selecting the grand jury and thus violated her right to due process of law under the federal Constitution. ( Hicks v. Oklahoma (1980) 447 U.S. 343, 346 [65 L.Ed.2d 175, 100 S.Ct. 2227].) (16) There is no exemption from jury service for elderly persons. A prospective juror may be excused from such service based upon undue hardship resulting from, among other causes, a physical or mental disability or impairment, not affecting that person's competence to act as a juror, that would expose the potential juror to undue risk of mental or physical harm. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 2.1008(d)(5).) A court, however, may not require a person 70 years of age or older claiming such disability to furnish verification of his or her condition. ( Ibid. ) At a hearing held in the trial court, however, it was established that two of the deputy clerks in the San Mateo Superior Court consistently granted exemptions from jury service to all persons 70 years of age and older, whether or not they requested exemption. Other deputies did the same on occasion or exercised greater leniency in granting exemptions to those 70 years of age or older as compared with other persons. In a random sample taken of the jurors summoned during a six-week period in May and June of 1993, persons 70 years of age or older represented only 1.13 percent of the venire, although in the 1990 census, persons over the age of 70 years represented 10.42 percent of the population. At the hearing, defendant's experts testified that persons who were in this older age group at the time of defendant's trial shared distinctive outlooks and attitudes based not only upon their chronological age but also upon their common experience of having lived through World War II and the Great Depression. (17) A violation of the requirement that a jury be drawn from a fair cross-section of the population is established by showing (1) that the group alleged to be excluded is a `distinctive' group in the community; (2) that the representation of this group in venires from which juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3) that this underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process. ( Duren v. Missouri (1979) 439 U.S. 357, 364 [58 L.Ed.2d 579, 99 S.Ct. 664].) (18) As defendant concedes, neither this court nor the United States Supreme Court has held that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community, applicable to a petit jury, also applies to a state grand jury convened for the purpose of considering issuance of an indictment. (But see Peters v. Kiff (1972) 407 U.S. 493, 503-504 [33 L.Ed.2d 83, 92 S.Ct. 2163] [if a state chooses to use a grand jury, due process imposes limitations on the composition of that jury and prohibits systematic exclusion based upon race].) In addition, defendant has failed to cite any California case holding that a category composed of older persons is a distinctive group for purposes of fair-cross-section analysis or that members of a particular age category constitute a distinctive group because they experienced certain historical events in common. [3] We need not resolve these issues, however, because, even assuming the grand jury that indicted defendant was selected in violation of state law or constitutional fair-cross-section requirements, that circumstance would not require reversal of her conviction. (See People v. Corona (1989) 211 Cal.App.3d 529 [259 Cal.Rptr. 524] ( Corona ).) (19) Generally, a conviction will not be reversed because of errors or irregularities that occurred at a preliminary hearing or grand jury proceeding, absent a showing that the asserted errors deprived [the defendant] of a fair trial or otherwise resulted in any actual prejudice relating to [the] conviction. ( People v. Towler (1982) 31 Cal.3d 105, 123 [181 Cal.Rptr. 391, 641 P.2d 1253] [purported irregularities in grand jury proceedings, including the admission of hearsay and improper comments by the prosecutor, did not require reversal]; see People v. Stewart (2004) 33 Cal.4th 425, 461-463 [15 Cal.Rptr.3d 656, 93 P.3d 271] [asserted misconduct of the prosecutor at the preliminary hearing did not require reversal of conviction absent a showing that the trial was unfair]; People v. Pompa-Ortiz (1980) 27 Cal.3d 519, 522 [165 Cal.Rptr. 851, 612 P.2d 941] [violation of a defendant's right to a public preliminary hearing did not compel reversal of his conviction absent a showing that the violation in some way prejudiced defendant at his subsequent trial]; Corona, supra, 211 Cal.App.3d at p. 535 [claim that the defendant's right to a grand jury selected from a fair cross-section of the community had been violated did not require reversal absent prejudice at trial]; see also Coleman v. Alabama (1970) 399 U.S. 1, 11 [26 L.Ed.2d 387, 90 S.Ct. 1999] [denial of the defendant's right to counsel at the preliminary hearing was subject to harmless error review].) The United States Supreme Court, in creating an exception to the foregoing general rule, has held that purposeful racial discrimination in the selection of grand jurors, in violation of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, requires reversal of the ensuing conviction without a showing of prejudice. ( Vasquez v. Hillery (1986) 474 U.S. 254, 260-264 [88 L.Ed.2d 598, 106 S.Ct. 617]; Rose v. Mitchell (1979) 443 U.S. 545, 556 [61 L.Ed.2d 739, 99 S.Ct. 2993]; Strauder v. West Virginia (1879) 100 U.S. 303, 308 [25 L.Ed. 664].) The high court has included among the rare forms of constitutional errors held not to be subject to harmless error analysis the unlawful exclusion of members of the defendant's race from a grand jury. ( Arizona v. Fulminante (1991) 499 U.S. 279, 310 [113 L.Ed.2d 302, 111 S.Ct. 1246].) That court, however, has not extended the requirement of automatic reversal to other defects in the grand jury process. (See, e.g., United States v. Mechanik (1986) 475 U.S. 66, 71-72 [89 L.Ed.2d 50, 106 S.Ct. 938] [violation of the rule prohibiting a grand jury witness from being present during other portions of the grand jury proceedings does not require automatic reversal]; Hobby v. United States (1984) 468 U.S. 339, 344-350 [82 L.Ed.2d 260, 104 S.Ct. 3093] [discrimination in selection of federal grand jury foreman does not require automatic reversal of defendant's conviction].) The rationale for reversing a conviction without consideration of prejudice in instances of racial discrimination is that intentional discrimination in the selection of grand jurors is a grave constitutional trespass, possible only under color of state authority, and wholly within the power of the State to prevent. Thus, the remedy we have embraced for over a centurythe only effective remedy for this violationis not disproportionate to the evil that it seeks to deter. ( Vasquez v. Hillery, supra, 474 U.S. at p. 262, fn. omitted.) In contrast to the deliberate racial discrimination addressed in Vasquez v. Hillery, supra, 474 U.S. at page 262, the unwarranted exemption of some persons over the age of 70 years as a result of errors committed by court clerks is not the type of evil that requires or justifies the extreme remedy of automatic reversal of a criminal conviction obtained as the result of a fair trial. Indeed, in the present case the superior court's practices regarding excusal of jurors over 70 years of age were discontinued shortly before the hearing. [4] Consequently, we agree with the Court of Appeal's decision in Corona that an asserted violation of the right to a grand jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community does not require reversal of a conviction obtained after a fair trial, absent a showing of prejudice. ( Corona, supra, 211 Cal.App.3d at p. 535.) Defendant does not attempt to demonstrate that the purported constitutional error in selecting the grand jury in her case was prejudicial, and no prejudice is apparent from the record.