State v. McCarthy

496 A.2d 513, 197 Conn. 247, 1985 Conn. LEXIS 876
Supreme Court of Connecticut·Decided August 20, 1985·No. 10917·Published·Cited by 37 cases

Opinion

Shea, J.

On May 20, 1981, the defendant, John McCarthy, was found by a jury to have committed the [248] crimes of larceny in the first degree and burglary in the third degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-122 (a) (2) and 53a-103 (a), respectively, and was sentenced to an effective prison term of not less than ten nor more than twenty years. From this judgment the defendant appeals, claiming that the trial court erred (1) in denying his fair cross-section challenge to the jury array, (2) in failing to suppress inculpatory statements that he gave to the police after a claimed illegal arrest and that were allegedly prompted by promises of beneficial treatment, (3) in permitting cross-examination of the defendant beyond what he claimed was the scope of direct, and (4) in refusing to instruct the jury on the crimes of larceny in the second and third degrees as lesser included offenses. We find no error.

On June 20,1980, the defendant was arrested by the Westport police on charges unrelated to those at issue here. Knowing that the defendant was a suspect in certain burglaries that had occurred in Wilton, the West-port police contacted the Wilton police and informed them that the defendant was in custody. The next day, two Wilton police officers spoke with the defendant at the jail in Westport, and then took him for a drive through Wilton, where the defendant incriminated himself in several burglaries, including the one involved in this appeal. More than two weeks later, a warrant was issued for the arrest of the defendant for the present burglary and larceny. At trial the defendant stipulated that he had committed the theft in question, but denied having the requisite mental state for the crimes charged. He also contested the valuation of the property stolen. The jury found him guilty of the crimes charged.

I

In support of his claim that he was deprived of his due process right to a jury made up of a fair cross sec[249] tion of the population,1 the defendant presented expert testimony that, of the 12,351 persons called for jury duty in Fairfield county during the two and one-half year period immediately preceding his trial in April, 1981, only 240, or 1.9 percent, had Hispanic surnames. On the basis of the Hispanic population of Fairfield county as documented by the United States census of 1970,2 3.75 percent of the 12,351 potential jurors, or 465 Hispanics, should have been included in the venires. The plaintiffs expert testified that the chance of this disparity occurring randomly was less than one in two and one-half million based on “statistical decision theory.”3 The court denied the challenge to the array without elaboration.4

[250] We have recently had occasion to consider the appropriate test to be applied to a fair cross section challenge of a jury array. In State v. Castonguay, 194 Conn. 416, 481 A.2d 56 (1984), we quoted from Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 364, 99 S. Ct. 664, 58 L. Ed. 2d 579 (1979), wherein the United States Supreme Court declared that “ ‘[i]n order to establish a prima facie violation of the fair-cross-section requirement, the defendant must show (1) that the group alleged to be excluded is a “distinctive” group in the community; (2) that the representation of this group in venires from which juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3) that this underrepresentation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury selection process.’ Duren v. Missouri, supra, 364. Once the defendant has established this prima facie case, the burden then shifts to the state to prove that the selection system resulting in a nonrepresentative array furthers a significant state interest. Id., 367.” State v. Castonguay, supra, 421-22.

With respect to the first requirement of Duren, we have noted on several occasions, and the state has conceded in this appeal, that Hispanics constitute a “distinctive” group in the community for purposes of this fair cross section claim. See State v. Couture, 194 Conn. 530, 551, 482 A.2d 300 (1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1192, 105 S. Ct. 967, 83 L. Ed. 2d 971 (1985); State v. Castonguay, supra, 424.

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State v. McCarthy, 496 A.2d 513, 197 Conn. 247, 1985 Conn. LEXIS 876 (Colo. 1985).

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