Opinion ID: 2646881
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prospective Juror C.H.

Text: Prospective Juror C.H. initially failed to fill out several pages of his questionnaire; the trial court therefore returned the form to allow C.H. to complete it. In response to question 27, which asked whether the prospective juror had any friends or relatives who had been arrested or charged with a crime, C.H. indicated that he had an uncle who had been convicted of drug charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. In response to question 66, which asked how African Americans are treated by the criminal justice system, C.H. wrote, “unfairly and unjust.” Similarly, in response to question 66B, when asked whether African Americans “are treated fairly in our courts,” C.H. answered, “Rarely.” In response to question 74, which asked whether any member of the prospective juror’s family had died from unnatural causes, C.H. indicated that his uncle had been murdered. In response to question 82B, which asked whether he would be able to follow the law requiring him to consider all aggravating and mitigating factors before determining the appropriate sentence, C.H. checked, “No.” C.H. also wrote “N/A” in response to several questions, including question 78A (“What are your GENERAL FEELINGS regarding the death penalty”), question 78B (“What are your GENERAL FEELINGS regarding life in prison without the possibility of parole?”), question 79A (“Do you feel that the death penalty is used . . .” “Too often,” “Too seldom,” or “About right”?), and question 86 (“What are your impressions of life in prison without the possibility of parole as a punishment for murder?”). When asked which adjective most accurately described his philosophy regarding the death penalty, C.H. marked, “[n]eutral.” During voir dire, C.H. indicated that he had been confused when he answered “no” to question 82B. When asked to explain why he felt African Americans were treated unjustly by the criminal system, C.H. responded: “Family history, that’s about it. . . . Uncles and, like, cousins were unjustly prosecuted. 103 That’s it.” Upon further questioning from the trial court, C.H. acknowledged that he did not know whether his relatives actually had been unjustly treated or whether they merely felt they had been mistreated. In explaining his reasons for exercising a peremptory challenge against C.H., the prosecutor stated that he used a “three strikes system.” “If an individual hits what I think are three negative answers, regardless of race, the three strikes and you’re out, basically are the wisdom of my approach.” According to the prosecutor, C.H. had accumulated the following “strikes”: (1) he had an uncle in prison for drug charges; (2) he believed African Americans were “rarely” treated “fairly” in the court system; (3) he believed his relatives had been unjustly prosecuted; (4) his uncle had been murdered (the prosecutor explained that this reason was not one of his strikes, but noted that “that is a question”); (5) he answered “not applicable” in response to various questions about the death penalty; and (6) he initially failed to answer question 82A, which asked whether he would be able to fairly consider all the evidence presented during the penalty phase. The prosecutor stated that C.H.’s failure to answer that question was particularly important, explaining that question 82A was “the acid test question for me. . . . He just refused to answer that.” The prosecutor noted that C.H. had “bagged [sic] off a little bit” on his views about the fairness of the justice system during voir dire, but explained that “[a]s a prosecutor on a death penalty case, I cannot take that kind of chance and have a loaded gun up there like that.” Defense counsel responded as follows: “I’m not sure how much importance we should give to the lack of answers on those series of questions the first time around. He did fill it out a second time around. [¶] And they seemed fairly neutral, but he did get around to filling those out. Secondly, his explanation as to why he would say unfairly and unjustly prosecuted once, he realized his error of his own analysis, which was just relying on the word of his relatives as opposed 104 to really thinking about was there something there live, any proof? [¶] . . . I think he did come to realization that his initial position was erroneous, that he should not have made such a blanket statement without actually having analyzed the circumstance of those statements that were made about his relatives. “With respect to the relative that is in prison, I think we have other people is this that [sic] shake out differently. I’m not sure Mr. Ruiz will challenge those people as well. I’m not sure that that that necessarily throws him in any special category. [¶] I think we have [another juror] with a brother-in-law on death row in North Carolina. . . . [¶] And with regard to having an uncle that I believe was murdered, again I believe that there’s several people on this jury panel that have been victims of crimes or have relatives that are victims of crimes. [¶] . . . I’m not sure that that would justify the challenge that the prosecutor is urging is race neutral.” The trial court then ruled as follows: “I’ve listened to Mr. Ruiz’s reasons. Let me start out with saying I agree with Mr. Cormicle that [C.H.] did, in fact, change his answers in light of my questioning of him, that especially about the uncles and the cousins. That is the part that really stuck in my mind, that he said, no, that it was word of mouth from them. [¶] . . . [¶] Now unfortunately, at this point, . . . let’s see if [other prospective jurors] meet the same three tests Mr. Ruiz uses, the same thought process on a caucasion, for instance. I don’t know that answer. [¶] But I think these reasons are good enough to defend against a Wheeler motion. And I would deny the Wheeler motion, with that caveat that I’m kind of operating in the blind here. But I would expect Mr. Ruiz to use the same standards on evaluating a caucasion speculative juror as he does [C.H.]. [¶] . . . I’m going to have to deny it based upon what I have at this point.” Further, the trial court said to the prosecutor: “[P]art of my decision was made on the idea that you said you’re using the three strikes. My reference to 105 using the same standard on a caucasion is if you get a caucasion that’s got the three — or fails the three strikes test, are you going to use the same judgment on that person? That is where I’m in the dark at this point because I don’t know. [¶] . . . [¶] . . . I’m going to assume that the lawyers are upfront with me — [¶] . . . [¶] — until they prove that they can’t be trusted. And so, therefore, you get the benefit of the doubt . . . .” In the trial court, defendant did not later renew his Batson/Wheeler challenge to the strike of C.H. based on the prosecutor’s subsequent decisions to strike or not strike prospective jurors based on his “three strikes system.” In this appeal, defendant argues that the prosecutor’s stated reasons were insufficient to justify striking Prospective Juror C.H. We disagree. On this record, we find that the trial court made “ ‘a sincere and reasoned effort to evaluate the nondiscriminatory justifications offered’ ” and thus “ ‘its conclusions are entitled to deference on appeal.’ ” (Lenix, supra, 44 Cal.4th at p. 614.) The trial court indicated that it listened to the prosecutor’s stated reasons and defense counsel’s response, and it did not indiscriminately accept the prosecutor’s reasons. Instead, the trial court said it agreed with defense counsel that during voir dire C.H. had changed his answer about the fairness of the justice system upon realizing he lacked substantiation for his earlier concern about unjust prosecution of his uncles and cousins. Presumably, then, the trial court viewed with some skepticism the prosecutor’s reliance on C.H.’s views about the fairness of the justice system. As for the prosecutor’s reliance on a “three strikes system,” the trial court ultimately told the prosecutor “you get the benefit of the doubt,” but not before putting the prosecutor on notice that it “would expect [the prosecutor] to use the same standards on evaluating a caucasion” and expressing caution that, at this early stage of the peremptory strikes, it did not know one way or the other whether the prosecutor would apply the system consistently. Further, the record 106 supports the prosecutor’s statements that C.H. had an uncle in prison for drug charges, that C.H. indicated on his juror questionnaire that he believed African Americans were “rarely” treated “fairly” in the court system, and that C.H. answered “not applicable” to various questions about the death penalty. Defense counsel, while mentioning other jurors with some individual attributes similar to C.H.’s, did not later contend that the prosecutor applied the “three strikes system” inconsistently. In sum, the record shows that the trial court, through a sincere and reasoned effort to evaluate the prosecutor’s stated reasons, determined that defendant had not shown it was more likely than not that the reasons were pretextual, and substantial evidence supports the trial court’s determination.