Opinion ID: 792413
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: District Court's ruling on Ochoa's Batson claim

Text: 89 In Batson, the Supreme Court offered two examples of circumstances that may support a prima facie case of racial discrimination: (1) engaging in a `pattern' of strikes against venire members of one race, or (2) questions or statements during voir dire or in exercising challenges that suggest a discriminatory purpose. Lowder, 236 F.3d at 636 (citing Batson, 476 U.S. at 97, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69). At trial, Ochoa's Batson claim rested solely on allegations that the prosecution engaged in a discriminatory pattern of strikes against Hispanic venire members. At the time Ochoa first made his Batson claim, four Hispanic venire members had been struck by the government and three of them had left the courtroom. Ochoa's counsel, Mr. Black, asserted that those four jurors (numbers 051, 221, 234, and 379) were all Hispanic males. The government responded that we haven't used our challenges for all Hispanic males. The evidence would later reveal that it had. The following exchange took place: 90 MR. BLACK: ... We think the government is improperly using its peremptory challenges to excuse Hispanic male jurors. 91 THE COURT: Does the government have a response? 92 MR. RYAN: Judge, I could go down the list and give specific responses, but I don't believe we have made — we haven't used our challenges for all Hispanic males. There are some that — 93 THE COURT: Can you just deal with the one that you just did? I don't know who the others were, they are gone now. 94 . . . 95 MR. RYAN: ... as to this last person that you asked about, we note that he listed his profession as photographer. We are seeking jurors who [have] more of a professional background. 96 THE COURT: Okay. 97 MR. BLACK: ... All he said was he was a photographer, his wife is in accounting. If they have a challenge for that other than racial or place of natural [origin], again would be pure guesswork. So I think it is improper. 98 THE COURT: Well, I think he has given a reason for this latest challenge. How do you know who these other people were? 99 MR. BLACK: I kept track of them. 100 THE COURT: How do you know they were Hispanic? 101 MR. BLACK: Since we don't know their names, we can't tell from the surnames. 102 THE COURT: So you're going on the basis of looking at them? 103 MR. BLACK: What else do we have? 104 THE COURT: I don't know. You didn't make a challenge at the time and I have no way of knowing if that's what they were. 105 MR. BLACK: We can bring them back. Why don't we ask to have them back and put on the record what their background is? We made note from either accent or the way they looked. 106 THE COURT: Okay. I will note the objection on this one — 107 MR. RYAN: Can you put on the record that juror number 494, who the government accepted, is a male who appears to talk with an [accent] that would indicate Hispanic background, and the government accepted. 32 108 After the government's sixth strike, Ochoa again objected on the basis of a pattern of racial strikes in violation of Batson, and the following exchange took place: 109 MR. BLACK: Object again under Batson, same racial characteristic. 110 ... 111 MR. GREGORIE: Your Honor, Dick Gregorie for the government. Mr. Black, as he was with the previous ones, is wrong. This man is not Hispanic. 33 The reason for excusing him is he's a Dade County juror clerk. And we did not want somebody who's part of the jury selection process on the jury. But he is not Hispanic, Your Honor. Mr. Black again is speculating and being wrong. 112 MR. BLACK: I don't [know] how we can say he is not. 113 THE COURT: How can you say he is? 114 MR. BLACK: Looking at him. Let's get his name and find out. I think we need something on the record, but we object under Batson. They are using every challenge in a racially — racial characteristic, and it is improper. Ask him if he speaks Spanish. 115 THE COURT: He has given a reason for his exercise. 116 . . . 117 MR. BLACK: One other thing, we would request — since the government has made an issue of it, we would ask that the juror forms that are filled out by the five who were excused by the government be made part of the record because there will be a designation as to whether they are Hispanic or not. We would ask that those juror forms be collected by the clerk and if Your Honor wants to seal them and make them part of the record so that we can help make a record on that issue. 118 THE COURT: Okay. 119 MR. RYAN: Your Honor, the only response I want to make on the record is whether they are or they aren't really doesn't serve the question as we're sitting here, we don't really know whether they are or aren't unless someone were to raise their hand and tell us that. 120 THE COURT: ... we will make it part of the record and [the government] can argue that they didn't know because they didn't have those forms anyway. 121 After the juror and alternate slots were filled, Ochoa renewed his objection on the Batson issue: 122 MR. BLACK: ... I want to put on the record that juror 51 is an Hispanic man; 221, 234, Hispanic males; 378, Hispanic male; and 124 was an Hispanic male. 123 So five out of their six peremptory challenges as to the jury went to Hispanic males. One peremptory challenge did not.... 124 [Also], I object to the makeup of the jury and move to strike. Dade County is 58 percent Hispanic. But the way it is now, I think there may be one. 34 So the government's plan to exclude all Hispanics from the jury has been very successful, and we add that to our Batson challenge.... 125 THE COURT: I don't know how you arrive at the determination of what the ethnic makeup of the jury is. 126 MR. BLACK: By looking at them. 127 THE COURT: I don't know that you can look at people and tell where they are from. 128 MR. BLACK: Then I would ask the Court to ask them. 129 THE COURT: I don't know that that's my burden. 130 MR. BLACK: Then I would ask permission to ask them. 131 THE COURT: But I don't think you have made — you have made what is an unsupported allegation. You are the one making it, not me. 132 MR. BLACK: But Your Honor does not allow us to have a questionnaire, to ask the questions, so I have to go with what I can. All I can do is see and listen. 133 THE COURT: What is it that — what power do you have? I would like to have that, look at people and know. 134 MR. BLACK: I will tell you exactly. I have lived in Dade County for well over 40 years. I can tell by the accents of their voices. We listened to people speaking, so we could tell which were Hispanic and which weren't. We can look at what their facial features are and their skin color. And it is pretty obvious to me that the judgments that they made are correct. 135 We have eight African Americans. That's pretty obvious to make a judgment on. And I would ask if the Court has any question, let's put on the record and have the people state whether they are African American, white American, Hispanic. 136 THE COURT: Well, I'm not sure that by looking at them that would pass the [ Daubert ] test. I mean. 137 MR. BLACK: I would be shocked if my client's Constitutional rights could be so easily disregarded. 138 MR. DEL TORO: The prosecution team has not been able to determine[] the ethic background of the juror who is a photographer because he did not have any kind of an accent, spoke standard English, didn't appear clearly to be Hispanic. 139 I have noticed two of the jurors impaneled as alternates or as jurors in this case do have Spanish accents, and they are both males. 35 140 Of course, the government is not excluding male Hispanics from this jury.... 141 MR. BLACK: I'm glad the government agreed that you could tell the Hispanic accent, so the government has joined me. 142 MR. DEL TORO: I said the only one — I could tell the two on the panel, the opposite of the Batson challenge, did not have discernible accents. He spoke standard American English. 143 MR. RYAN: If I could interrupt? This morning Mr. Black asked that the jurors stricken by the government, that their records be preserved. I would ask that all the jurors' records be preserved. I think it supports us. 144 THE COURT: All right. 145 MR. BLACK: I support that. 146 THE COURT: Do I need to say denied? 147 MR. BLACK: Yes. Thank you. 148 THE COURT: Thank you. 149 Thus, the district court found that Ochoa could not establish a prima facie case of discrimination because no one could ascertain which anonymous venire members in this trial were Hispanic. 36 If the government could not determine the ethnicity of the potential jurors in the venire, then it could not improperly strike them on that basis. We therefore cannot say that the district court's findings on the Batson issue are clearly erroneous. 150 Neither is the dissent in a position to fact-find to the contrary here, see infra at 1057 (I am also unconvinced by the government's argument that it could not have violated Batson because it did not know the ... ethnicity of the prospective jurors at the time it exercised its peremptory strikes). This is a circumstance where the district court is in a better position than this Court to make the factual determination. Cf. United States v. James, 113 F.3d 721, 729 (7th Cir.1997) (district court was in a better position than appellate court to judge a juror's expression as a basis for a peremptory challenge). 151 While the district court might have benefitted from knowing the exact number of Hispanic jurors that the government dismissed (whether the government knew it or not), it could observe first-hand whether visible judgments could be made about each juror's ethnicity in the venire. Conversely, we have no way of knowing whether the government could tell whether the jurors it struck were Hispanics. The only evidence available to this Court are the district court's observations of the venire in the record and the prosecutors' attempts to identify specific jurors as being Hispanic after Ochoa objected. And those post-objection judgments were incorrect. While Ochoa's attorney did correctly determine at trial that the five struck jurors were Hispanic, he himself at trial misidentified five other Hispanic jurors when he indicated that the jury contained only one Hispanic juror. In fact, six Hispanics were empaneled as jurors or alternates. We must therefore defer to the district court's finding of fact that one could not identify Hispanic jurors in this particular case simply by their appearance and accent. 152 The better practice in an anonymous-jury case would certainly be to disclose to the parties, upon request, the self-reported race and ethnicity of the venire members (without their names) so that the appropriate record for Batson could be made during the jury selection process. As the record in this case reveals, the only alternative to identifying the self-reported race or ethnicity of the venire members is to establish it based on appearance, demeanor, accent, and other physical characteristics — thereby emphasizing racial distinctions in jury selection, which our Batson jurisprudence seeks to eliminate. 37 153