Bueno-Hernandez v. State

724 P.2d 1132, 1986 Wyo. LEXIS 612
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 8, 1986
Docket86-35
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 724 P.2d 1132 (Bueno-Hernandez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bueno-Hernandez v. State, 724 P.2d 1132, 1986 Wyo. LEXIS 612 (Wyo. 1986).

Opinion

MACY, Justice.

Appellant Luis Raul Bueno-Hernandez was found guilty by a jury of attempted second-degree sexual assault in violation of §§ 6-l-301(a) and 6-2-303(a)(v), W.S.1977, and sentenced to not less than 18 months nor more than four years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary.

We affirm.

Appellant raises the following issues on appeal:

“I. WHETHER THE PROSECUTION’S USE OF ITS PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES AMOUNTED TO SYSTEMATIC EXCLUSION OF AN ETHNIC GROUP FROM THE JURY IN VIOLATION OF APPELLANT’S RIGHT TO HAVE THE JURY REPRESENT A CROSS SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE.
“II. WHETHER APPELLANT’S CONFESSION SHOULD HAVE BEEN DECLARED INADMISSIBLE BY THE TRIAL COURT BECAUSE IT WAS NOT VOLUNTARY.
“HI. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL FOR NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE. “IV. WHETHER APPELLANT
SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHARGED AND TRIED FOR A VIOLATION OF WYO.STAT. § 14-3-105 (1977) INSTEAD OF A VIOLATION OF WYO. STAT. § 6-l-301(a) (1977) AND § 6-2-303(a)(v) (1977).”

On the night of August 22, 1985, a nine-year-old girl was spending the night at her next-door neighbor’s house. After watching a movie, the girl went to sleep on the couch in the living room. During the night, she was awakened when a man’s hand reached up from the floor and began fondling her. She looked over the edge of the couch and saw appellant, her next-door neighbor’s brother, lying on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. She got up to tell someone, but, upon looking back and seeing that appellant was asleep, she lay back down on the couch. Later, she was 'again awakened by appellant’s touches. Several days later, the child told her parents what had happened, and appellant was arrested.

I

Appellant is a Mexican national. During voir dire, three members of the venire who were apparently of Mexican-American heritage were excluded from the jury by the prosecutor through the use of peremptory challenges. In chambers, prior to trial, appellant moved for a mistrial on the ground that the prosecutor’s systematic exclusion of Mexican-Americans violated appellant’s right to a fair and impartial jury. The trial court denied the motion, noting that no questions were asked of the venire members to establish that they were in fact Mexican-Americans. The court noted further that it was not prepared to take judicial notice of a Mexican-American background solely from the fact that the excluded venire members had Spanish surnames. Appellant now raises the claim before this Court that he was denied a fair and impartial jury by the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude Mexican-Americans.

The test for determining whether peremptory challenges have been improperly used to exclude minorities from a jury was most recently articulated by the United States Supreme Court in Batson v. Kentucky, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 *1134 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). 1 There the Supreme Court held that although a defendant has no right to a petit jury composed in whole or in part of persons of his own race, the state may not purposefully exclude members of the defendant’s race solely because of race. When challenging the jury selection process, the burden is on the defendant to prove the existence of purposeful racial discrimination.

“[A] defendant may establish a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination in selection of the petit jury [by showing first] that he is a member of a cognizable racial group, and that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges to remove from the venire members of the defendant’s race. Second, the defendant is entitled to rely on the fact * * * that peremptory challenges constitute a jury selection practice that permits ‘those to discriminate who are of a mind to discriminate.’ Finally, the defendant must show that these facts and any other relevant circumstances raise an inference that the prosecutor used that practice to exclude the veniremen from the petit jury on account of their race. This combination of factors * * * raises the necessary inference of purposeful discrimination.
* * * # * *
“Once the defendant makes a prima facie showing, the burden shifts to the State to come forward with a neutral explanation for challenging [the] jurors. * * * [T]he prosecutor’s explanation need not rise to the level justifying exercise of a challenge for cause. But the prosecutor may not rebut the defendant’s prima fa-cie case of discrimination by stating merely that he challenged jurors of the defendant’s race on the assumption — or his intuitive judgment — that they would be partial to the defendant because of their shared race. * * * Nor may the prosecutor rebut the defendant’s case merely by denying that he had a discriminatory motive or ‘affirming his good faith in individual selections.’ ” Batson v. Kentucky, 106 S.Ct. at 1723 (citations omitted).

In the present case, it is undisputed that appellant is a member of a cognizable racial group. However, during voir dire no questions were asked to establish the race of the challenged venire members. Therefore, the only fact tending to show that members of appellant’s race were excluded from the jury is that three of those challenged had Spanish surnames. Because appellant did not request that the voir dire be recorded, he can point to no other relevant circumstances which raise the inference that the prosecutor used his perempto *1135 ry challenges to exclude venire members because of their race.

As the United States Supreme Court has said:

“We have confidence that trial judges, experienced in supervising voir dire, will be able to decide if the circumstances concerning the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges creates a prima facie case of discrimination * * Batson v. Kentucky, 106 S.Ct. at 1723.

In the present case, the trial court apparently was not persuaded that, because of Spanish surnames or other circumstances, a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination existed.

Even assuming that this Court were to find appellant had established a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination, the prosecutor offered a sufficient neutral explanation for challenging the venire members to refute appellant’s claim. In chambers, following appellant’s motion for a mistrial, the prosecutor responded as follows:

“[T]he first [juror] challenged by the State * * * is known to our office through Mr. Green who had a history of dealing with her at Legal Services as has also Mr. Tristani. After discussing her in great length we unanimously decided she would not be an appropriate Juror in this case even though she does have a four and a half year old daughter.
“As to the next Juror * * * we knew there might also be a bias against our office because Dennis Grant in our office has sued him for collection * * *. “Finally, * * * the last individual challenged by the State * * * is known to our office to be * * * anti-law enforcement.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
724 P.2d 1132, 1986 Wyo. LEXIS 612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bueno-hernandez-v-state-wyo-1986.