Opinion ID: 1192049
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Evidence Supporting the Motion to Quash

Text: At the time of defendant's trial, Kern County assembled its master jury list by randomly drawing names from the county's voter registration list. Questionnaires were then sent to those chosen to determine eligibility to serve as jurors. There was no attempt to ensure that the ethnic composition of the group selected for jury service approximated that of the county as a whole. Although there were plans in the future to use names of those holding driver's licenses to supplement those names from the voter registration lists when assembling the master jury list, such plans had not yet been implemented at the time defendant was tried. The parties stipulated that defendant could rely, in support of his motion to quash, on the expert testimony presented in three other recent Kern County Superior Court cases. (See People v. Cantu, Nos. 21891, 22229 ( Cantu ); People v. Robinson, No. 21518 ( Robinson ); People v. Streeter, Nos. 22346, 22056, 21910, 21368 ( Streeter ).) Dr. Newell, an expert in psychology and statistics, testified in the Cantu and Robinson cases (and his testimony was admitted in the Streeter case). He stated that he had scrutinized the available data from the 1980 census and had analyzed jury panels in Kern County between October 1980 and February 1981, as well as panels in May 1981. In Cantu, he testified that the government census reported that Kern County was 21.59 percent Hispanic, and estimated that 17.76 percent of the county was both Hispanic and at least 18 years old, i.e., presumptively jury eligible. [3] To determine the ethnic makeup of the group summoned for jury duty during the period in question, Dr. Newell scrutinized the master jury list, presumably noting those with Spanish surnames. He also conducted telephone surveys to confirm the number of those on the list who were Hispanic. He concluded that 8.3 percent of those appearing for jury duty were Hispanic. In the Robinson case a few months later, Dr. Newell presented even more refined statistics. From the Immigration and Naturalization Service, he obtained the information that 14,387 Hispanic resident aliens resided in Kern County in 1978. (Such evidence was not available for 1980.) Deducting that number from the total number of Hispanics in the county (based on 1980 census figures), Dr. Newell opined that 19.81 percent of Kern County residents were Hispanic. (2) (See fn. 4.) Using the same methodology as in the Cantu case (see fn. 3, ante ), he estimated that 16.3 percent of the county was made up of adult Hispanics. [4] He reiterated that 8.3 percent of those appearing for jury duty were Hispanic. He concluded that the likelihood the exhibited disparity would occur by chance was one in one million. After reading the transcripts of the Cantu, Robinson, and Streeter cases and hearing argument on the issue, the trial court denied without prejudice defendant's motion to quash, stating, I do believe that there has been a prima facie showing that there is a disproportionate number of people with Hispanic surnames called for jurors, but I am not sure that that means a thing, and everybody knows by reading the Los Angeles Times and any other publication that there are an enormous number of people in this country illegally or green card-wise [ sic ] who are not even citizens. [¶] So, I don't think that really in and of itself means anything. Defendant renewed the motion later and it was again denied.