Cerda v. State

644 S.W.2d 875, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5510
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 2, 1982
DocketNo. 07-81-0108-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 644 S.W.2d 875 (Cerda v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cerda v. State, 644 S.W.2d 875, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5510 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, Chief Justice.

In a Hale County jury trial, Edward Martinez Cerda was convicted of the offense of felony theft. Punishment was assessed by the jury at five (5) years confinement and a fine of $1,500.

Appellant does not question the sufficiency of the evidence which, in brief, shows that the victim of the theft testified at trial and identified appellant as the person who appropriated his property without his effective consent. Appellant does question, in his first three grounds of error, the selection of the jury and a procedural aspect of the trial. We cannot agree, as later explained, that error is shown under any of these grounds.

He also charged, by his fourth ground, that the trial court committed reversible error in overruling his motion to quash the [876]*876indictment when he proved that the Mexican-American class of which he is a member was systematically excluded from the selection of grand juries in Hale County. We agree that the unrebutted prima facie case of purposeful discrimination shown in the selection of grand juries requires a reversal of the judgment of conviction and a dismissal of the indictment.

Part I

In Part I of this opinion we simply note that appellant’s first three contentions of reversible error are not supported by the record and applicable law. There is no uniqueness in the evidential record, and the issues presented have been settled adverse to appellant’s contentions; therefore, the rationale for overruling the first three grounds of error is relegated to an unpublished Appendix to Part I of this opinion. Tex.Cr.App.R. 207(a).

Part II

Appellant was indicted in 1979 by a Hale County grand jury. The grand jurors were impaneled from a list of prospective jurors selected by jury commissioners who were appointed by a district judge. The system for selecting grand jurors, called the “key man” system in Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 484, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 1275, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977), and accepted as facially constitutional, Id., 430 U.S. at 497, 97 S.Ct. at 1281, was shown to have been used in Hale County for at least eleven years, from 1969 to 1979, at the time of appellant’s indictment.1

Asserting that the grand jury selection system denied him equal protection of law, appellant moved the trial court to quash the indictment. The denial occurred, appellant alleged, because over a significant time, there had been a substantial underrepresen-tation of the Mexiean-American class, to which he belongs, on Hale County grand juries. Hearing the evidence appellant adduced to support his motion, the court overruled the motion, after which, following a jury trial, appellant was convicted of the felony offense for which he had been indicted.

Under his fourth ground of error, appellant contends that the court reversibly erred in overruling his motion to quash the indictment. He submits that he evidenced a prima facie case that an equal protection violation occurred in the use of the grand jury selection system and, his evidence being unrebutted by the State, he was entitled, by the authority of Castaneda, to have the indictment set aside. No brief has been filed on behalf of the State.

In Castaneda, the United States Supreme Court held that in order to establish a prima facie case of discrimination in the selection of grand jurors, a defendant must show three factors. The factors are: the group allegedly discriminated against is a recognizable, distinct class singled out for different treatment under the laws, as written or applied; the group is underrepresented on jury panels over a significant period of time; and the selection process is not racially neutral or is susceptible to being used as a tool of discrimination. Id., 430 U.S. at 494, 97 S.Ct. at 1280.

With respect to the first factor, it is no longer open to dispute that Mexican-Americans are a clearly identifiable class. Hernandez v. Texas, 347 U.S. 475, 478, 74 S.Ct. 667, 670, 98 L.Ed. 866 (1954). And in connection with the third factor, the “key man” selection system used is not racially neutral with respect to Mexican-Americans because the Spanish surnames are easily identifiable, providing a discernible opportunity for purposeful discrimination. Castaneda v. Partida, supra, 430 U.S. at 495, 97 S.Ct. at 1280.

As his showing of the second factor that the class of Mexican-Americans has been underrepresented on grand jury panels over [877]*877a significant period of time, appellant relied on demonstrative evidence complemented by explanatory testimony. The demonstrative evidence consisted of the 1970 census records, the 1969-70 and 1979-80 school enrollment records, and the grand jury panels for the eleven-year period from 1969 to 1979, as they pertained to Hale County.

According to the 1970 census, Hale County had a total population of 34,137, of which 8,382, or 24.55%, were Spanish surnamed. As of the 13 October 1980 trial date, the official 1980 census figures had not been officially released, and appellant interpreted the percentage of Mexican-Americans in the 1979-80 county population from school enrollment records.

The 1969-70 school enrollment records revealed an enrollment of 6,455 students and that, by surname identification, Mexican-Americans comprised 28.74% of the enrollment. Thus, within the time frame of the 1970 census, the ratio of Mexican-American students enrolled in the school system was 14.57% greater than the ratio of Mexican-American inhabitants in the county. The 1979-80 school enrollment record reflected a decrease in total enrollment to 6,125 students, but that, again by surname identification, the Mexican-American student ratio had increased to 44.51% of the student body. Hence, by projective application of the 14.57% Mexican-American student-inhabitant ratio in 1970, to the then current 44.51% ratio, Mexican-Americans comprised 38.03% of the county population in 1979-80 at the time the indictment was returned against appellant. Not only is the calculation of the Mexican-American percentage of the 1979-80 county population unchallenged by the State,2 but an inquiry whether the arithmetically computed ratio was validated by the subsequent 1980 census figures is foreclosed to us, because we are bound by the record made in the trial court as presented to us in the appellate record. Evans v. State, 622 S.W.2d 866, 868 (Tex.Cr.App.1981).

As a predicate for showing that the Mexican-American class had been underrepresented on grand jury panels over a significant time, appellant introduced the official grand jury venire from which were selected the grand jurors who returned the indictment against him. The venire was 25% Mexican-American, a disparity of 13.03% from the 38.03% Mexican-American composition of the county population.3 The grand jury list revealed that the grand jurors selected from the venire were 16.67% Mexican-American, an unexplained disparity of 21.36%,4 which confers relevancy upon the composition of the grand juries for the ten preceding years.5 Espinoza v. State, 604 S.W.2d 908, 909-10 (Tex.Cr.App.1980).

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644 S.W.2d 875, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cerda-v-state-texapp-1982.