Opinion ID: 614681
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Juror Estrada

Text: Juror Estrada was defense counsel’s residential letter carrier. This personal acquaintance provided the prosecution with a valid reason to challenge Estrada, and a Wheeler motion by Carrera’s counsel would have been pointless. Defense counsel’s second declaration on state habeas so establishes. 11 This question erroneously refers to seven, rather than six, prospective Hispanic jurors. During voir dire, Juror Torres explained that she was “white,” and that her surname was her husband’s last name. Thus, there were only six Hispanics stricken by the prosecution. 12 During Carrera’s state habeas proceedings, nearly five years after jury selection, the prosecutor submitted a declaration in which he stated he could not remember the reasons for his peremptory challenges, but that he was certain that he did not exercise the peremptory challenges based on racial grounds. 13 Indeed, the district court reviewed the voir dire of each juror with a Hispanic surname and concluded that reasons independent of group bias supported each peremptory challenge. Carrera v. Ayers, No. 1:90-CV00478-AWI, 2008 WL 681842, at -19, -29 (E.D. Cal. March 11, 2008). CARRERA v. AYERS 18721