Court Opinion

ID: 9788642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:13:40.460534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:15.399229
License: Public Domain

MORENO, J.,
Concurring and Dissenting. — I concur in the majority opinion insofar as it affirms the guilt verdict and special circumstance finding. I dissent with respect to the penalty verdict. In my view, Prospective Juror E.H. was improperly excused for cause because of the trial court’s determination that E.H. was unable to realistically impose the death penalty. Notwithstanding the deference appellate courts owe to a trial court’s determination of such matters, I conclude the trial court erred. Although E.H. professed to be against the death penalty, she was also unequivocal in her willingness to impose that penalty in some circumstances, and to do so in a way that was consistent with California death penalty law, and therefore she was able and willing to perform her duties as a juror in a capital case. Moreover, the trial court explicitly stated that it did not doubt her credibility. I therefore conclude that the trial court erred in determining she would be substantially impaired in performing her duty as a juror. Such error requires reversal of the death penalty verdict.
I.
I begin with review of pertinent case law. In Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968) 391 U.S. 510 [20 L.Ed.2d 776, 88 S.Ct. 1770] (Witherspoon), the United *457States Supreme Court considered a capital jury selection regime governed by a statute that permitted a challenge for cause whenever a prospective juror was opposed to capital punishment or expressed “conscientious scruples” against such punishment. (Id. at p. 512.) In the case before the court, almost half the veniremen had been excused because of qualms about capital punishment. (Id. at p. 513.) The Witherspoon court concluded that such a regime would deny a capital defendant the Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury, because a jury in which all persons with reservations about the death penalty were excluded would be a panel “uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die.” (Witherspoon, at p. 521.) Instead, the court held that jurors may be excluded for cause if they make it “unmistakably clear (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at the trial of the case before them, or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant’s guilt.” (Id. at pp. 522-523, fn. 21, original italics.)
In Wainwright v. Witt (1985) 469 U.S. 412 [83 L.Ed.2d 841, 105 S.Ct. 844], (Witt), the court, while reaffirming that the Sixth Amendment is violated by categorically excluding from capital juries those opposed to the death penalty, criticized the Witherspoon court’s formulation of the proper standard for challenging prospective jurors. In that case, notwithstanding a prospective juror’s admission that she believed her personal objections to the death penalty would interfere with her ability to sit as a juror and to determine both defendant’s guilt and innocence, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals had concluded that the juror’s expression had not met the Witherspoon standard of unequivocally stating that she would never vote for the death penalty, and reversed the death judgment. The Supreme Court reversed. The court noted that the jury in Witherspoon was given unfettered discretion to impose the death penalty, whereas jurors after Gregg v. Georgia (1976) 428 U.S. 153 [49 L.Ed.2d 859, 96 S.Ct. 2909] had their discretion limited and directed by certain statutory criteria. Therefore, the fact that a prospective juror would not “automatically” vote against death was insufficient to protect the state’s interest in having jurors who would comply with its statutory capital sentencing scheme. (Witt, supra, 469 U.S. at pp. 420-423.) Instead, the court permitted removal for cause when the juror’s views would “ ‘prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.’ ” (Id. at p. 424.)
The Witt court further elaborated that “in addition to dispensing with Witherspoon’s reference to ‘automatic’ decisionmaking, this standard likewise does not require that a juror’s bias be proved with ‘unmistakable clarity.’ This is because determinations of juror bias cannot be reduced to question-and-answer sessions which obtain results in the manner of a catechism. What common sense should have realized experience has proved: many veniremen *458simply cannot be asked enough questions to reach the point where their bias has been made ‘unmistakably clear’; these veniremen may not know how they will react when faced with imposing the death sentence, or may be unable to articulate, or may wish to hide their true feelings. Despite this lack of clarity in the printed record, however, there will be situations where the trial judge is left with the definite impression that a prospective juror would be unable to faithfully and impartially apply the law.” (Witt, supra, 469 U.S. at pp. 424-426, fn. omitted.) The Witt court also emphasized that, as in other situations involving juror bias, a capital juror’s bias based on opposition to the death penalty “involves credibility findings whose basis cannot be easily discerned from an appellate record,” and therefore requires considerable deference to the trial court’s determination. (Id. at p. 429.) The question on review “is not whether a reviewing court might disagree with the trial court’s findings, but whether those findings are fairly supported by the record.” (Id. at p. 434.)
In California, our capital statutory scheme requires that penalty phase jurors weigh various aggravating and mitigating factors in order to determine whether death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole is the proper sentence. Although jurors are statutorily directed to consider such aggravating and mitigating factors, their evaluation of those factors is by its very nature subjective: “ ‘Each juror is free to assign whatever moral or sympathetic value he deems appropriate to each and all of the various factors he is permitted to consider ....’” (People v. Boyde (1988) 46 Cal.3d 212, 253 [250 Cal.Rptr. 83, 758 P.2d 25].) For this reason, the standard and burden of proof requirements for determining guilt in criminal proceedings are neither required nor appropriate at the penalty phase of a capital trial. “ ‘Unlike the guilt determination, “the sentencing function is inherently moral and normative, not factual” [citation] and, hence, not susceptible to a burden-of-proof quantification.’ ” (People v. Box (2000) 23 Cal.4th 1153, 1216 [99 Cal.Rptr.2d 69, 5 P.3d 130].)
Accordingly, it is understood, that jurors will bring their values, beliefs, and opinions into the jury room when determining the proper penalty. As we explained in People v. Kaurish (1990) 52 Cal.3d 648, 699 [276 Cal.Rptr. 788, 802 P.2d 278] (Kaurish): “A prospective juror personally opposed to the death penalty may nonetheless be capable of following his oath and the law. A juror whose personal opposition toward the death penalty may predispose him to assign greater than average weight to the mitigating factors presented at the penalty phase may not be excluded, unless that predilection would actually preclude him from engaging in the weighing process and returning a capital verdict.”
As we elaborated in People v. Stewart (2004) 33 Cal.4th 425, 447 [15 Cal.Rptr.3d 656, 93 P.3d 271] (Stewart): “Kaurish, supra, 52 Cal.3d 648, *459recognizes that a prospective juror may not be excluded for cause simply because his or her conscientious views relating to the death penalty would lead the juror to impose a higher threshold before concluding that the death penalty is appropriate or because such views would make it very difficult for the juror ever to impose the death penalty. Because the California death penalty sentencing process contemplates that jurors will take into account their own values in determining whether aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors such that the death penalty is warranted, the circumstance that a juror’s conscientious opinions or beliefs concerning the death penalty would make it very difficult for the juror ever to impose the death penalty is not equivalent to a determination that such beliefs will ‘substantially impair the performance of his [or her] duties as a juror’ under Witt, supra, 469 U.S. 412. ... A juror might find it very difficult to vote to impose the death penalty, and yet such a juror’s performance still would not be substantially impaired under Witt, unless he or she were unwilling or unable to follow the trial court’s instructions by weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the case and determining whether death is the appropriate penalty under the law.” (First italics added.)
Thus, although we require jurors to set aside their values and biases when determining guilt, and to objectively apply the law as described to them in the jury instructions to the evidence presented, at the penalty phase of a capital trial something quite different is expected. Values, far from being set aside, are the very basis for the juror’s decision, albeit guided by certain statutory markers. Accordingly, if we can imagine a hypothetical system in which jurors serve on multiple capital juries, and their voting records can be discovered, juror A, who voted five times for life imprisonment without parole and five times for death, would not necessarily be a more objective or conscientious juror than juror B, who served on the same 10 juries but voted for death nine times out of 10, or juror C, who voted for life imprisonment without parole nine out of 10 times. Although juror B may be strongly predisposed to vote for the death penalty, and juror C against, each would be following his or her oath as long as he or she followed the statutory directive to choose a penalty by weighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances, even though their attitudes toward the death penalty would cause them to differ from each other, and from juror A, as to the weights given.1
*460There are two types of challenges that prosecution or defense counsel may exercise to remove prospective jurors — challenges for cause (Code Civ. Proc., § 227) and peremptory challenges (id., § 231) — and in a capital case, each side has 20 peremptory challenges (ibid.). In practice, peremptory challenges often are used to remove prospective jurors in whom bias is perceived, but where that bias does not rise to the level supporting a challenge for cause. (See People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal.3d 258, 278-279 [148 Cal.Rptr. 890, 583 P.2d 748].)
Therefore, in a capital case, when a prosecutor is faced with a prospective juror who expresses opposition to the death penalty, he or she may pursue two routes to removing that person. First, if it can be gleaned from voir dire that such opposition would essentially prevent the prospective juror from voting for the death penalty, or from following the statutory scheme governing capital cases, he or she may be removed for cause. If, on the other hand, it appears from voir dire that the prospective juror can set aside categorical opposition to the death penalty, can engage in the weighing process and under some realistic circumstances impose the death penalty, but the person’s opposition to the death penalty makes it less likely that he or she will impose that penalty, the prosecution may exercise a peremptory challenge to remove the juror. Although the determination is not necessarily easy, a trial court must not confuse the two types of jurors, and if it appears from the record that the trial court excused for cause a juror who was able to engage in the weighing process and impose the death penalty, even though that juror’s opposition to capital punishment would “make it very difficult for the juror ever to impose the death penalty . . .” (Stewart, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 447), an appellate court must find error.
On the other hand if a prospective juror equivocates during voir dire on the question of whether she can fiilfill her oath in a capital case, the trial court’s determination that she should be removed for cause is binding on appellate courts. (See People v. Roldan (2005) 35 Cal.4th 646, 696 [27 Cal.Rptr.3d 360, 110 P.3d 289].) This is because, in evaluating whether equivocal answers indicate substantial impairment, the trial court takes into account the credibility and demeanor of the prospective juror, which appellate courts cannot do. (See id. at p. 697.)
n.
Turning to the present case, as the majority recounts: “In her response to the juror questionnaire, when asked to describe her general feelings regarding *461the death penalty, Prospective Juror E.H. wrote: T used to be strictly against it — particularly because it was applied to poor or minority persons more so than others. Now — I might be able to vote for the death penalty — if a crime was really, really awful.’ She added that her views had moved from ‘strongly against’ to ‘moderately against’ capital punishment, ‘based on hearing of awful crimes and repeat offenders.’ Her questionnaire also noted that she would vote against a ballot measure authorizing the penalty of death, because ‘it’s applied more often to minority and poor’ defendants. She nonetheless checked the box on the questionnaire indicating that she did not ‘hold any religious, moral feelings or philosophical principle that would affect [her] ability to vote for the death penalty in this case.’ ” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 433.)
In response to her initial questioning by the trial court, she candidly admitted that she was more inclined to vote for life without parole instead of death. She nonetheless affirmed that she could vote for death, that such a vote was not merely a remote possibility but a realistic one “for a crime or crimes that. . . had such aggravating . . . circumstances.”
In response to questioning by the prosecution, E.H. affirmed that she could vote in favor of the death penalty, for example, in situations in which a lot of people were killed, or in which torture was involved. She never indicated that these were the sole sets of circumstances that would warrant her vote in favor of the death penalty. When the prosecutor pointed out that neither was involved in the present case, and that the special circumstance at issue was a murder connected with lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14, she indicated that she “might” be able to impose the death penalty, and that she would have to hear the facts of the case. In the course of the prosecutor’s voir dire, E.H. stated her disagreement with the rule that people opposed to the death penalty who state that there was no realistic possibility of their imposing the death penalty should be excluded from juries, although she reiterated that she did not fall into that category. She also affirmed that, notwithstanding her view that minorities are disproportionately subject to the death penalty, she could impose the death penalty on a member of minority group because “each case is different. . . . [I]f the facts warrant it, I could vote for the death penalty.” Pressed by the prosecution about whether her possibility of imposing the death penalty was realistic, she stated: “It sounds like you and I define realistically differently.” In the course of their colloquy, in the prosecutor’s attempt to probe whether imposition of the death penalty was a realistic possibility for her, he stated that “I get a sense that this is very, very uncomfortable for you, and, you know it’s very — it’s irritating. Am I right?” E.H. agreed that he was.
Defense counsel declined to question E.H., and the trial court conducted further voir dire. The court stated its particular concern with her position that *462people categorically opposed to imposing the death penalty should not be excluded from juries and that, if that were the case, there would be no death penalty verdicts. E.H. affirmed that if she were a legislator, that would be her position, and that such a rule would not necessarily result in no death penalty verdicts because “perhaps that person, with that belief, might get changed or swayed by the actual situation.” The trial court expressed concern that her response sounded like “there may be an agenda here. An agenda to achieve some social or political end.” E.H. denied having any “hidden agenda” and stated that “realistically, if I had to put a number on it, it would be like, say, 10 percent possibility I could vote for the death penalty.”
After hearing from the prosecution and defense counsel, the latter of whom argued vigorously that E.H. should not be excused for cause, the trial court ruled in favor of the prosecution. The court stated that it was a “close and troubling call.” It noted again E.H.’s moderate opposition to the death penalty and her view that minorities are disproportionately given the death penalty and stated that it was “troubled, to a degree, by all these things,” but acknowledged that they were not, by themselves, reasons to excuse a juror. The court then stated: “I don’t believe she is lying here. I don’t believe she came into court with the intent to thwart the process. But I am very concerned with any [juror] who will state in [the] unequivocal way that she did in response to one of my questions, I disagree and disapprove of the law that would allow the court to excuse someone who is emphatically opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and wouldn’t vote for it, no matter what the evidence showed at a penalty trial. And she did state that.
“Now, I made it clear that I did not believe that it was her — and I don’t and it’s clear from her questionnaire and her questions here that that isn’t necessarily her. But if that is her view, for someone who does fall into that position, that is a criterion] that I need to evaluate^ I]n terms of whether or not it is a realistic and practical possibility that she would ever, under any circumstances, impose the death penalty. In other words, it’s a factor for the court to determine in deciding whether or not I have a definite impression that she would be unable to perform her oath.
“Adding all these things together, I have the definite impression that she could not do this, that she could not perform her duty, in accordance with her oath. And by adding all these things together, I am adding together all the various things that we’ve ascribed to her, the fact that she equates this defendant with a class that she believes are disproportionately the target of capital punishment and the various other things that she’s expressed here. All things considered, I thought about this as carefully as I can. I am left with the definite impression that she would be unable to faithfully and impartially apply the law.
*463“I do not believe she is perjuring herself here. I do not believe she is lying to us. I believe she is honestly expressing her views, as best she can.
“But that’s my ruling. And I will excuse her.”
Although no one can fault the trial court for what was obviously a conscientious and earnest effort to grapple with this difficult question, the record does not support the determination that E.H. was unable to fulfill her oath. In arriving at this conclusion I first consider the trial court’s negative findings. The court concluded that E.H. was not lying, and did not have a hidden agenda. Thus, although reviewing courts will generally defer to trial courts on matters of credibility, here the trial court made clear it found that E.H.’s statements were credible.
If that is the case, then E.H. was not lying when she said that she could impose the death penalty in some cases, if the circumstances were truly aggravating. Indeed, the trial court expressly concluded that E.H. was not among the class of persons who could never vote for the death penalty. Nor did E.H. take the position that only certain of the statutory special circumstances were worthy of the death penalty. She did not rule out the possibility that she could impose the death penalty in the present case in which the special circumstance was that the murder was committed in connection with the commission of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14.
The trial court found significant E.H.’s view that those categorically opposed to imposing the death penalty should be allowed on juries. But her view on this matter was largely irrelevant to the question of whether she could follow her oath. She merely stated that, if she were a legislator, she would support that rule. She never stated that she would be unable to serve on a jury that would exclude such strong opponents of the death penalty. The question of who should be allowed to serve on a capital jury is a complex one that has bedeviled lawyers, courts and scholars alike. While E.H.’s views on this question were perhaps not fully formed, and she might have altered them with further discussion, she was not, in her view, advocating a method of jury selection that would result in no death verdicts. She believed that some people who professed to be categorically against the imposition of the death penalty might change their minds when asked to serve on a jury sitting in judgment of an aggravated murder — in other words that some of those jurors might undergo the transformation that she herself had experienced of modifying her opposition to the death penalty when faced with the facts of a very aggravated murder. To be sure, if her rule was adopted, fewer death penalty verdicts would result. But her opinion on who should qualify for a capital jury would have bearing on her fitness to serve on a capital jury herself only if it reflected some kind of hidden agenda to qualify for a capital jury in order *464to vote against the death penalty. As discussed, the trial court explicitly rejected the notion that E.H. had such a hidden agenda. Indeed, a person with such an agenda would tend to hide or understate his or her true feelings about the death penalty whereas E.H. was, in the trial court’s words, “honestly expressing her views.”
Nor did her view that minority defendants are disproportionately subject to the death penalty disqualify her. That view does have a basis in fact and is widely shared.2 As long as this view will not prevent a juror from imposing the death penalty on a minority defendant, it cannot be a basis for disqualifying a juror for cause. Here, E.H. specifically stated that she could impose the death penalty on a minority defendant if the facts warranted it, and the record indicates the trial court believed her statement.
In sum, there is nothing in the record, nor anything in the trial court’s remarks, to suggest that E.H. would have subverted a proper determination of guilt or special circumstances. At most, the record supports the conclusion that E.H.’s moderate opposition to the death penalty would “make it very difficult for [her] ever to impose the death penalty . . . .” (Stewart, supra, 33 Cal.4th at p. 447.) But as we have held, that difficulty is not to be equated with substantial impairment of a juror’s duties. (Ibid.) Indeed, Juror D.F., who was not excused for cause, had a strong predilection in favor of the death penalty. Although the prosecution may well have found a peremptory challenge of E.H. appropriate, there is nothing in the record, particularly in light of the trial court finding in favor of E.H.’s credibility, to indicate a substantial impairment that would support a challenge for cause. Whether it misapprehended the distinction that we made explicit in Stewart between substantial impairment of a juror’s performance of the prescribed duties and a juror’s great difficulty in imposing the death penalty, and/or was distracted by the irrelevancy of E.H.’s position regarding who should serve on a capital jury, or for some other reason, the trial court erred in granting the prosecutor’s challenge of E.H. for cause.
The majority comes to the contrary conclusion, relying on several considerations. The majority makes much of the fact that E.H. “displayed visible *465emotion when challenged concerning her ability to consider imposing the death penalty, as well as when she learned that the law permitted exclusion of prospective jurors who were unalterably opposed to the death penalty.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 437.) But neither E.H.’s irritation with the prosecutor’s line of somewhat repetitious questioning, nor her expression of emotion when articulating and defending her positions in an intimidating setting, pointed to her inability or unwillingness to follow her oath. Indeed, if voir dire produces tension between prospective jurors and prosecutors, or otherwise exposes temperamental unfitness, it is a peremptory challenge rather than a challenge for cause that is appropriately exercised. As the United States Supreme Court stated in Swain v. Alabama (1965) 380 U.S. 202, 219-220 [13 L.Ed.2d 759, 85 S.Ct. 824] (overruled on other grounds in Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79 [90 L.Ed.2d 69, 106 S.Ct. 1712]): “[T]he very availability of peremptories allows counsel to ascertain the possibility of bias through probing questions on the voir dire and facilitates the exercise of challenges for cause by removing the fear of incurring a juror’s hostility through examination and challenge for cause.” Furthermore, the trial court in its extensive statement of reasons for granting the challenge for cause did not rely on E.H.’s emotional response during voir dire.
The majority also states: “E.H. did not suggest she could put aside her own views concerning the death penalty and participate in the trial purely on the basis of the law under which she was instructed. Rather than deferring to existing law, the prospective juror offered merely a small possibility that her own scruples would permit her to reach a verdict of death for an especially heinous crime.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 437.) I respectfully disagree with the majority’s characterization of E.H.’s responses during voir dire. Although E.H. did not employ the legal jargon that belongs to penalty phase jurisprudence, she did evince an understanding of her role as a juror that is perfectly consistent with our death penalty law. She affirmed that she could realistically impose the death penalty “for a crime or crimes that . . . had such aggravating . . . circumstances,” and that she had relaxed her previous strong opposition to the death penalty due to “awful crimes and repeat offenders.” Thus, although she was not explicitly asked about weighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances, she avowed that she could and would impose the death penalty for certain murders when there were aggravating circumstances involving either the crime or the criminal record of the defendant. Nor, as discussed above, did she unduly restrict what types of aggravating circumstances could lead her to vote for the death penalty — she mentioned torture murder and multiple murder as examples but she did not mle out murder in the course of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor as also worthy of the death penalty if aggravating circumstances were present. She appeared *466to be describing, albeit in layperson’s terms, precisely the kind of weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances that penalty phase juries are required to perform.
The majority compares E.H. to Prospective Juror B.S., who was also excused for cause and also espoused anti-death-penalty views. I believe a comparison between the two jurors is useful but, again, I draw a different conclusion. B.S. indicated on her questionnaire that she was strongly opposed to the death penalty and stated that the death penalty “serves no useful purpose” and “makes killers out of us.” (See maj. opn., ante, at p. 427.) When asked by the prosecutor if it was realistic that she would ever vote for the death penalty, she responded that “it is not realistic that I would” but “it is realistic that I . . . could,” a response the trial court characterized as “verbal gymnastics.” The trial court reasonably concluded that a person with such strong views against the death penalty would not follow her oath, notwithstanding the lip service she gave to her ability to impose it. E.H., in contrast, was consistent in explaining that her opposition to the death penalty had moderated and that she could impose the death penalty in some cases of murder with aggravating circumstances. She never expressed the kind of grave moral reservations stated by B.S. — the death penalty makes killers out of us — nor engaged in B.S.’s type of verbal evasion, both of which taken together justifiably led to B.S.’s removal for cause. She made clear that her general opposition, based in large part on her view that minorities and the poor are disproportionately subject to the death penalty, would not preclude her from imposing that penalty on a particular minority defendant when warranted by the facts.
I agree with the majority that E.H. was not disqualified simply because she was opposed to the death penalty. Rather, the trial court appeared to disqualify her because of the views she held — that minorities and the poor are punished disproportionately, that people categorically opposed to the death penalty should serve on juries — and the court’s belief that such views would make it difficult for her to impose the death penalty. But as discussed above, that difficulty does not constitute a substantial impairment of her ability to perform her duty as a juror, and there was no indication of substantial impairment, particularly in light of the trial court’s credibility findings in favor of E.H. I see nothing in the record, nor in the trial court’s reasons for granting the prosecution’s motion, that would call into question her ability to engage in the weighing process required by the death penalty statute and, in appropriate cases, vote to impose the death penalty.
The commission of Witt error by wrongfully excusing a prospective juror in a capital case requires automatic reversal of the death judgment, but does not disturb the guilt and special circumstance verdicts. (People v. Heard *467(2003) 31 Cal.4th 946, 966 [4 Cal.Rptr.3d 131, 75 P.3d 53].) Accordingly, I would reverse the capital sentence and remand for a new penalty phase trial.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied September 23, 2009. Werdegar, J., did not participate therein. Moreno, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

I note that the problem of how to deal with prospective jurors in capital cases who oppose the death penalty may well be a large and growing one. Polls show that about one-third of those surveyed in this state oppose the death penalty, up from only 14 percent in 1989. (See Field Research Corp., The Field Poll, Release #2183 (Mar. 3, 2006) pp. 1-2, 6 (The Field Poll) [poll conducted Feb. 12-26, 2006, showed 63 percent favored and 32 percent opposed the death penalty in California].) The exclusion of one out of three potential jurors because the attitudes toward the death penalty might predispose them to vote for life imprisonment without *460parole would indeed result in a jury panel “uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die” in violation of the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights. (Witherspoon, supra, 391 U.S. at p. 521.)

 Although the case for the race of the defendant, as an independent factor, affecting the charging and sentencing practices of prosecutors and juries in capital cases is inconclusive (see Liptak, New Look at Death Sentences and Race, N.Y. Times (Apr. 29, 2008) p. A10), there is no question that African-Americans in particular make up a much larger proportion of the death row population than of the general population. (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Death Row U.S.A. (Winter 2009) p. 35 [42 percent of those on death row are African-American, as opposed to approximately 12 percent of the general population].) The February 2006 Field Poll on the subject reports that 40 percent of those surveyed agree with the statement “[rjacial discrimination is a big factor in deciding who gets the death penalty, with whites not as likely to be sentenced as blacks, Latinos, and other minorities,” with 51 percent disagreeing and 9 percent having no opinion. (The Field Poll, supra, at p. 5.)