Carmical v. Craven

457 F.2d 582
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 4, 1971
DocketNo. 26236
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 457 F.2d 582 (Carmical v. Craven) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carmical v. Craven, 457 F.2d 582 (9th Cir. 1971).

Opinion

HUFSTEDLER, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Carmical appeals from an order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. His petition charged that his state court conviction was invalid because he was tried by a jury drawn from a jury panel unconstitutionally selected.

Before we discuss the merits of the petition, we dispose of appellee’s contention that Carmical had waived his jury discrimination claim by his failure to raise the question at the time he was tried in the state court in November 1966. The state court record contains no indication of any affirmative act on Carmical’s part evidencing his deliberate rejection of his constitutional guaranty. (McNeil v. North Carolina (4th Cir. 1966) 368 F.2d 313, 315.) There is nothing in either the state court proceedings or the record below suggesting that Carmical’s attorney declined to raise the issue for some strategic purpose. As the district court, 314 F.Supp. 580, impliedly found, the ingredients for deliberate bypass specified in Fay v. Noia (1963) 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837, are lacking, and the issue is not foreclosed on collateral attack. (Cobb v. Balkcom (5th Cir. 1964) 339 F.2d 95; cf. Fernandez v. Meier (9th Cir. 1969) 408 F.2d 974.)

For the purpose of testing the sufficiency of Carmical’s averments, prima facie, to sustain his claim for habeas relief, the appellee admitted the truth of the matters set forth in the petition and exhibits filed in support of it. The petition and the exhibits include the following facts: Carmical was tried and convicted for possessing heroin and for illegally possessing a firearm. At the time of his trial in Oakland, California, Oakland used a “clear thinking” test to select a master jury panel from the voter registration lists. The test purportedly winnowed voters of below “ordinary intelligence,” leaving only those who satisfied California’s statutory command[585]*585ment that a juror be “[i]n possession of his natural faculties and of ordinary intelligence and not decrepit.” (Cal.Civ. P.Code, § 198(2) (West 1954).) The test consisted of 25 multiple-choice questions which had to be answered in 10 minutes. Prospective jurors were not told about the time limit before they took the test. To qualify for the master jury panel, prospective jurors were required to give “correct” answers to at least 80 percent of the questions.1

The use of this test excluded a substantial majority of otherwise eligible minority and low income persons from the master jury roll. In the second half of 1967, 81.5 percent of registered voters from predominantly black and low income areas of Alameda County who took the test failed to pass it. In contrast, only 14.5 percent of those eligible jurors from predominantly white areas taking the test failed to pass it. A total of 29 percent of all persons tested failed the examination. At the time of Car-mical’s prosecution in 1966, registered voters from predominantly white areas were nearly four times as likely to pass the test as were voters from black and low income areas.

A psychologist who is an expert on reliable testing methods declared by affidavit that: (1) the test contained many administrative flaws; (2) the high failure rate indicated that the test was excluding persons of ordinary intelligence; and (3) certain questions measured cultural rather than intelligence factors.

In 1968, the Superior Court for the County of Alameda prohibited further use of the test because it separated examinees on some basis other than “ordinary intelligence.” 2

The facts accepted as true for purposes of this appeal established a prima facie case of class exclusion from the jury selection process. In Whitus v. Georgia (1967) 385 U.S. 545, 87 S.Ct. 643, 17 L.Ed.2d 599, jurors were selected from tax digests previously maintained on a segregated basis. Blacks constituted 27.1 percent of persons potentially eligible for jury service. Only 9.1 percent of the grand jury venire and 7.8 percent of the petit jury venire were blacks. There was no evidence that any of the 27.1 percent eligible black jurors were disqualified from jury service. There existed a 3-to-l disparity between blacks eligible for jury service and those on the grand jury venire and a 3.5-to-l disparity on the petit jury venire. Ten out of 123 persons on both venires, or 8.1 percent, were blacks, a disparity of 3.3-to-l. Here, the test excluded from jury service 81.5 percent of the registered voters from black and low income neighborhoods but only 14.5 percent of the registered voters from predominately white areas, leaving 18.5 percent of the blacks but 85.5 percent of the whites. The state offered no evidence that any voter disqualified by the test was disqualified for other reasons. The ratio of eligible black and low income persons who would be eligible for jury service if the test excluded the same percentage of them as it did whites to those placed on the master list is 4.6 to 1, a disparity greater than that condemned in Whitus.

Once Carmical has presented his prima facie case, the state must adduce [586]*586evidence sufficient to rebut it. (E. g., Coleman v. Alabama (1967) 389 U.S. 22, 88 S.Ct. 2, 19 L.Ed.2d 22; Hill v. Texas (1942) 316 U.S. 400, 62 S.Ct. 1159, 86 L.Ed. 1559; Norris v. Alabama (1935) 294 U.S. 587, 55 S.Ct. 579, 79 L.Ed. 1074.)

The sole issue on appeal is a narrow question of law: Is proof alone that the “clear thinking” test in fact resulted in large-scale exclusion of identifiable classes of veniremen otherwise eligible for jury service sufficient to make out a prima facie case of constitutionally impermissible jury selection, or, as the state contends, must Carmieal also have offered evidence that the “clear thinking” test was intentionally designed to produce that result?

The narrowness of the question does not obscure its constitutional importance. Trial by jurors selected from the broad spectrum of society is a constitutional mandate. (E. g., Carter v. Jury Commission (1970) 396 U.S. 320, 330, 90 S.Ct. 518, 24 L.Ed.2d 549; Smith v. Texas (1940) 311 U.S. 128, 130, 61 S.Ct. 164, 85 L.Ed. 84.) A state may not systematically exclude persons from the jury selection process on the basis of their race, color, national origin, or on other identifiable group characteristics. (E. g., Whitus v. Georgia, supra; Hernandez v. Texas (1954) 347 U.S. 475, 74 S.Ct. 667, 98 L.Ed. 866; Strauder v. West Virginia (1879) 100 U.S. 303, 25 L.Ed. 664.) Token inclusion of members of the affected class in the selection process does not satisfy that fundamental command. (See Jones v. Georgia (1967) 389 U.S. 24, 88 S.Ct. 4, 19 L.Ed. 2d 25; Whitus v. Georgia, supra; Smith v. Texas, supra.) Although petitioner is not constitutionally required to be tried by a jury including persons from his race or class or by a jury proportionately representative of the community (e. g., Swain v.

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457 F.2d 582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carmical-v-craven-ca9-1971.