People v. Flores

549 N.E.2d 1342, 193 Ill. App. 3d 501, 140 Ill. Dec. 470, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 77
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 22, 1990
Docket2-88-0156
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 549 N.E.2d 1342 (People v. Flores) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Flores, 549 N.E.2d 1342, 193 Ill. App. 3d 501, 140 Ill. Dec. 470, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 77 (Ill. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE UNVERZAGT

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Fermín Flores, was indicted for murder and was convicted by a jury in the circuit court of Boone County of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of his girlfriend, Sandra Loveless. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 38, par. 9 — 3(a).) He was sentenced to imprisonment in the Department of Corrections for 4V2 years.

Defendant asserts that the court erred in denying his motion to discharge the jury panel. At issue is whether he presented a prima facie case of a violation of the fair-cross-section requirement. Defendant’s contention is that Boone County’s petit jury selection system, which draws potential jurors from the voter registration list, resulted in an underrepresentation of Hispanics, which thereby deprived him of his right to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community and his right to equal protection under the law.

The defendant filed a timely motion to discharge the jury panel pursuant to section 114 — 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 38, par. 114 — 3). This motion alleged that the defendant was denied his right to a fair and impartial jury because the venires called in Boone County did not reflect a representative cross-section of the community. In addition to asserting that there were no Hispanic individuals in the instant venire, the defendant alleged the 1980 census showed that 4.3% of Boone County’s population was of Hispanic descent. Accordingly, he concluded that on an 80-per-son jury panel, 3.44 should be of Hispanic descent, and the probability of one Hispanic being selected to a 12-person jury is approximately 31%, and the probability of two Hispanics being selected is 8%. The defendant’s motion further alleged that for the period July 1980 to March 1987, 17 “Venire for Jurors” were issued summoning 1,260 people. (Testimony at the hearing and defendant’s argument here use the figure 1,360.) Of the surnames shown thereon, only five were Spanish. This computes to .004%, which demonstrates a substantial underrepresentation on jury venires of Boone County’s Hispanic population.

When the motion was presented, defense counsel acknowledged that the venire is derived by random selection from the voter registration list in Boone County. Counsel further acknowledged that it was not the defendant’s contention that the county had purposefully excluded Hispanics, but that it may be that Hispanics do not register to vote and so would not be on the list. Counsel suggested more appropriate alternatives were available and named the driver’s license holder list as an example.

At the hearing held on the defendant’s motion, it was stipulated based on defendant’s exhibit No. 1 that the Hispanic population of Boone County according to the 1980 census was 4.3%. It was also stipulated that defendant’s group exhibit No. 2 reflected the names of persons that were actually selected to serve on jury panels in Boone County for the eight-year period 1980 to 1987. It was further stipulated that People’s exhibit No. 1 was a January 1985 list of the names of 1,394 individuals which represented every tenth name on the voter registration list picked by the circuit court clerk to be summoned for jury service. The most recent jury panel selected in September 1987 was randomly selected from amongst those names.

Dr. Burley Bechdolt, an associate professor of economics at Northern Illinois University, was called to testify concerning the statistical probability of Hispanic participation on petit juries in Boone County. Dr. Bechdolt described what the binomial probability distribution theory meant, and, based on the figures obtained from the census report and other pertinent materials, he related that with an Hispanic population of 4.3%, the odds of having one Hispanic on a 12-person jury was 31.8% and the odds of having two Hispanics on a 12-person jury was 8.5%. Dr. Bechdolt testified further it was his understanding that an examination of the 1,360 surnames on the “Venire for Jurors” lists revealed only five Hispanic surnames. Based on that number of Hispanic surnames, Dr. Bechdolt calculated there was a 95.3% probability of having no Hispanics on any given jury. In sum, Dr. Bechdolt found that there was a high probability that “[Yjou’re not going to get any Hispanics on a jury of 12 people.”

Dr. Bechdolt testified further based on that number that the probability of having one Hispanic on a petit jury was 4.6%; the probability of having two Hispanics on a jury was .127%. Dr. Bechdolt opined it would be virtually impossible to have two persons of Hispanic descent on a petit jury in Boone County. Dr. Bechdolt calculated the degree of underrepresentation for Hispanics in Boone County based on the 1980 U.S. census was 90.7%. In calculating this underrepresentation figure, Dr. Bechdolt assumed the 1980 census was correct, that the information about Spanish surnames on the list was correct, and that selection of the jury venire from the voter registration list was a random process.

On cross-examination, Dr. Bechdolt stated that he could not positively identify a number of certain surnames as belonging to Hispanic individuals and that he had been told that only five Hispanics had served on petit juries since 1980. He also testified he did not know what percentage of Hispanics in Boone County were 18 years old or how old they were in 1980 when the census was taken. He further testified he did not know what percentage of Hispanics in Boone County could understand the English language or had anglicized their names. He stated he had no background in genealogy, and he did not know how many Hispanic people had moved in or out of Boone County since 1980.

In response to a query by the court, Dr. Bechdolt stated his determination of the percentage of underrepresentativeness of Hispanics in Boone County would remain the same even if he began his calculations with the “larger population” rather than the jury of 12 (i.e., the voter registration list from which 10% are randomly selected and then randomly pared down to a field of 80 persons from which the 12 jurors are drawn).

Following Dr. Bechdolt’s testimony, argument ensued as to whether the defendant had presented a prima facie case of violation of the fair-cross-section requirement. Defense counsel argued that defendant’s group exhibit No. 2 indicated that of the many persons shown on the list as having been selected to serve on jury panels from 1980 to 1987, only five had Hispanic surnames. Counsel stated the five surnames were identified by himself and the deputy circuit court clerk by going through the list. Counsel argued the prosecution’s own exhibit No. 1, the every-tenth-name list drawn by the circuit court clerk from the voter registration list, reflected “a very few Hispanic surnames.” Inter alia, defense counsel posited that a more equitable cross-section of Boone County could be obtained through the use of the driver’s license holder list instead of the voter registration list.

In his argument in response, the prosecutor noted defense counsel is not a genealogist and has no background in determining the ethnic origin of names. By his own count on People’s exhibit No. 1, the prosecutor identified 14 possibly Hispanic surnames.

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Related

People v. Beard
648 N.E.2d 111 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1995)
People v. Peeples
616 N.E.2d 294 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
549 N.E.2d 1342, 193 Ill. App. 3d 501, 140 Ill. Dec. 470, 1990 Ill. App. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-flores-illappct-1990.