Court Opinion

ID: 9612786
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:11:18.405062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:23.044373
License: Public Domain

EAGLESON, J.
I concur fully in the majority’s reversal of the judgment under People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal.3d 258, 283 [148 Cal.Rptr. 890, 583 P.2d 748]. The prosecutor used six out of sixteen peremptory challenges to exclude Black venirepersons. The trial judge repeatedly expressed his suspicions and concern that the prosecutor was improperly utilizing his peremptory challenges to exclude Black persons. The judge further candidly disclosed that he was himself unfamiliar with the procedural requirements of Wheeler. Defense counsel having timely objected and adequately demonstrated a prima facie case of group bias sufficient to require the prosecutor to explain the reasons underlying his peremptory challenges, the court was obligated to conduct a further inquiry on the record in accordance with the procedures mandated in Wheeler, supra, 22 Cal.3d at page 280. (Accord, Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79, 93-100 [90 L.Ed.2d 69, 85-90, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 1721-1724].)
I write separately to note my concern over the majority’s ambiguously worded observation that “the prosecutor was in error in assuming that defense counsel’s supposed wrongful exclusion of Caucasians in some manner justified his own exclusion of Black persons.” (Ante, p. 224, italics added.) In my view the majority’s opinion might be mistakenly read as impliedly condoning such actions on the part of defense counsel.
The road paved by Wheeler is a two-way street. We explained therein that: “Although in the present appeal the Attorney General . . . does not claim the right to object to the same misuse of peremptory challenges on the part of defense counsel, we observe for the guidance of the bench and bar that he has that right under the constitutional theory we adopt herein: the People no less than individual defendants are entitled to a trial by an impartial jury drawn from a representative cross-section of the community. . . . [T]o hold to the contrary would frustrate other essential functions served by the requirement of cross-sectionalism.” (People v. Wheeler, supra, 22 Cal.3d at p. 282, fn. 29, italics added; see also Commonwealth v. Soares (1979) 377 *229Mass. 461 [387 N.E.2d 499, 517, fn. 35] [adopting the above-quoted reasoning of Wheeler].)
In Bakke v. Regents of University of California (1976) 18 Cal.3d 34 [132 Cal.Rptr. 680, 553 P.2d 1152] (affd. in part, revd. in part, University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978) 438 U.S. 265 [57 L.Ed.2d 750, 98 S.Ct. 2733]), we flatly rejected “the proposition that deprivation based upon race is subject to a less demanding standard of review under the Fourteenth Amendment if the race discriminated against is the majority rather than a minority.” (Bakke v. Regents of University of California, supra, 18 Cal.3d 34, at p. 50.)1 In my view this fundamental principle applies with equal force to Wheeler-Batson representative cross-section analysis under the Sixth Amendment (Wheeler, supra, 22 Cal.3d 258; Batson, supra, 476 U.S. 79) and our state constitutional counterpart. (Cal. Const., art. I, § 16.)
In response to the trial court’s stated concerns during voir dire regarding the evolving “ ‘ethnic make up of the jury,’ ” the prosecutor denied any bias in his exercise of peremptory challenges, “and observed that while he had thus far passed a jury containing two Blacks, defense counsel had peremptorily excused thirteen White venirepersons. In the prosecutor’s words, T think it works both ways.’ ” (Ante, p. 224.)
Assuming there was a legitimate basis to support the prosecutor’s perception that defense counsel was himself exercising peremptory challenges against prospective Caucasian jurors solely on the basis of ethnic or group bias, the majority correctly observe that the prosecutor was in error in assuming defense counsel’s improper conduct somehow justified his own exclusion of Black persons. (Ante, p. 225.) The propriety of the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges must be determined independently of the validity of defense counsel’s challenges; as we observed in Wheeler, “A party does not sustain his burden of justification by attempting to cast a different burden on his opponent.” (People v. Wheeler, supra, 22 Cal.3d at 283, fn. 30.)
When either party believes his opponent is transgressing the fundamental constitutional right to an impartial jury guaranteed to a defendant and the People under article I, section 16, of the California Constitution (Wheeler, *230supra, 22 Cal.3d at 277, 282, fn. 29), the sole proper remedy is to alert the trial judge by timely objection, in order that the inquiries mandated by Wheeler might be initiated.
With this one reservation, I concur in the judgment.
Kaufman, J., concurred.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied January 21, 1988.

 “The concepts of ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ necessarily reflect temporary arrangements and political judgments. . . . [T]he white ‘majority’ itself is composed of various minority groups, most of which can lay claim to a history of prior discrimination at the hands of the State and private individuals.” (University of California Regents v. Bakke, supra, 438 U.S. 265, 295 [57 L.Ed.2d 750, 774] [opn. by Powell, J.].)