Quote of note:
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that it is illegal to reject jurors on the basis of race, and the California Supreme Court in 1978 extended that prohibition to religion. While habeas corpus petitions typically challenge trial procedures, it is highly unusual for the prosecutor in a case to support the petition.
Case Stirs Fight on Jews, Juries and Execution
By DEAN E. MURPHY
OAKLAND, Calif., March 15 - The convictions of dozens of death-row inmates in California are coming under legal scrutiny because of accusations that Jews and black women were excluded from juries in capital trials in Alameda County as "standard practice."
A former Alameda prosecutor, John R. Quatman, made the contentions in a sworn declaration in the habeas corpus case of Fred H. Freeman. Mr. Freeman is a condemned inmate who is seeking to overturn his conviction in 1987 in a killing and robbery at a bar in Berkeley.
Mr. Quatman, who worked for 26 years as a deputy district attorney and prosecuted the case, said the trial judge, Stanley Golde, advised him during jury selection that "no Jew would vote to send a defendant to the gas chamber."
"Judge Golde was only telling me what I already should have known to do," Mr. Quatman's statement said. "It was standard practice to exclude Jewish jurors in death cases."
Mr. Quatman said the practice extended to African-American women, who have also been widely considered sympathetic to defendants, though in Mr. Freeman's case that has not been an issue.
Alameda County officials strongly disputed the claims, with the man who was district attorney in 1987 calling the accusations dishonest.
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that it is illegal to reject jurors on the basis of race, and the California Supreme Court in 1978 extended that prohibition to religion. While habeas corpus petitions typically challenge trial procedures, it is highly unusual for the prosecutor in a case to support the petition. A hearing on Mr. Quatman's accusation, which State Supreme Court ordered in July, is scheduled for Tuesday in Superior Court in San Jose.
If Mr. Freeman's lawyers succeed, he would get a new trial. But the repercussions are possibly much broader. Forty-four people from Alameda County are on death row, and Judge Golde, who died in 1998 after 25 years on the bench, presided over more death penalty cases in the county than any other judge. At least eight inmates now on death row had trials conducted by Judge Golde.
"It is highly likely that this is going to be a recurring problem for Alameda County cases, and it could show up elsewhere," said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, is representing the county. "Legal arguments are not a fad for capital defendants. They are used until the law is settled."
