Opinion ID: 688565
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sixth Amendment and Statutory Challenges

Text: 58 Quinones charges that the 1992 jury wheel from which his petit jury was drawn violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury made up of a fair cross-section of the community, as well as his statutory claim to the same, under the Jury Selection and Service Act. The test for a constitutionally selected jury is the same, whether challenged under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution or under the Jury Selection and Service Act. United States v. Miller, 771 F.2d 1219, 1227 (9th Cir. 1985). Thus we can evaluate both claims simultaneously under the three-part Duren test recited above. 59 The government does not contest that Quinones has met the first prong of the Duren test. Hispanics are members of a distinctive and identifiable group in the community. United States v. Sanchez-Lopez, 879 F.2d 541, 547 (9th Cir. 1989), citing Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 495 (1977). 60 Under the second prong of the Duren test, Quinones was required to show that the representation of Hispanics on the jury source list from which juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of Hispanics in the community. Quinones presented the analysis of an expert demographer who found that Hispanics are underrepresented by an absolute disparity of 10.05% in the 1992 jury wheel. 4 61 A 10.05% absolute disparity is not high enough to meet the second prong of the Duren test. This circuit has consistently held that absolute disparities below 7.7% are insubstantial and constitutionally permissible. United States v. Suttiswad, 696 F.2d 645, 648 (9th Cir. 1982) (7.7% absolute disparity for Hispanics, 4.7% for Asians, 2.8% for Blacks); United States v. Kleifgen, 557 F.2d 1293, 1297 (9th Cir. 1977) (2.9% for Blacks, 4.4 % for males); United States v. Armstrong, 621 F.2d 951, 956 (9th Cir. 1980) (2.8% for Blacks). See also United States v. Rodriguez, 776 F.2d 1509, 1511 (11th Cir. 1985) (Although precise mathematical standards are not possible, this circuit has consistently found that a prima facie case of underrepresentation has not been made where the absolute disparity ... does not exceed 10%.). Quinones cites no cases, from this circuit or otherwise, which have found a Duren violation where there is a 10.05% disparity (in fact, Quinones did not provide the court with any cases where courts found Sixth Amendment violations). 62 Some courts have held that an absolute disparity on the order of twenty percentage points violates the second part of the Duren test. United States v. Irurita-Ramirez, 838 F. Supp. 1385, 1389 (C.D. Cal. 1993) (listing cases). Moreover, courts examining evidence presented in Duren claims have stated a strong preference for examining data on jury source lists and area populations collected over a period of several years. Ramseur v. Beyer, 983 F.2d 1215, 1235 (3rd Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 113 S. Ct. 2435 (1993) (listing cases). Quinones has only presented evidence as to one year. 5 63 Since the absolute disparity under the 1988 jury wheel is within constitutional limits, we do not need to reach the third prong of the Duren, which requires the court to evaluate whether the underrepresentation is caused by systematic exclusion. 6 We thus affirm the ruling of the district court that Quinones has failed to make out a prima facie claim that the Fresno division's jury selection procedures violate the Sixth Amendment or the Jury Service and Selection Act. 64