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State v. House2/24/1999
f groups of citizens who may be empaneled to decide a case, courts have applied different rules depending upon whether the question concerns the racial makeup of a venue, which is the particular geographical area, usually a county or judicial district, in which a court will hear and determine a case; a venire, which is the jury pool or group of citizens from whom a jury is chosen in a given case; or a petit jury, which is an ordinary jury selected from a venire, sworn to hear the evidence presented at trial and to declare a verdict of guilt or innocence. House appears to be urging that venire and petit jury principles should be applied, by analogy, to the selection of a venue. However, our research has disclosed few courts or Judges that have been willing to consider such a theory.
1. Racial composition of the petit jury
{84} It is well established in Federal and New Mexico law that the State may not, during the jury selection process, use its peremptory challenges to exclude otherwise unbiased and well-qualified individuals solely on the basis of their race, gender, economic status, or any other similar discriminatory characteristic. J.E.B. v. Alabama, 511 U.S. 127, 145-46 (1994) (gender); Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 409 (1991) (race); State v. Gonzales, 111 N.M. 590, 597-600, 808 P.2d 40, 47-50 (Ct. App. 1991) (gender); State v. Tapia, 81 N.M. 365, 366, 467 P.2d 31, 32 (Ct. App. 1970) (race, economic status). Such purposeful exclusions violate the constitutional right to equal protection of the laws of both the defendant and the potential jurors. Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 85-88 (1986); Gonzales, 111 N.M. at 595, 808 P.2d at 45 (prospective jurors). This type of discrimination is deemed to be so invidious that a defendant may establish a prima facie case of discrimination even if the "defendant's racial group is not substantially underrepresented on the jury." Gonzales, 111 N.M. at 595, 808 P.2d at 45. Even a single instance of purposeful exclusion may establish a prima facie case of discriminatory intent. See id. House contends that selecting a specific venue to purposefully preclude a particular race from a petit jury is just as unconstitutional as using peremptory challenges to systematically exclude a particular race from a petit jury.
2. Racial composition of the venire
{85} As with the petit jury, the venire must be selected in an entirely neutral and nondiscriminatory manner. "The Equal Protection Clause guarantees the defendant that the State will not exclude members of his race from the jury venire on account of race or on the false assumption that members of his race as a group are not qualified to serve as jurors." Batson, 476 U.S. at 86 (citations and footnote omitted). The State may not pass laws or promulgate rules that expressly exclude, on the basis of race, qualified individuals from the jury pool. See Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 308-09 (1879). Nor may government officials implement a neutral venire selection law in a discriminatory manner. Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 241 (1976) ("A statute, otherwise neutral on its face, must not be applied so as invidiously to discriminate on the basis of race."). House seeks to apply these notions to adjudicating the racial composition of a venue.
3. The State did not use the venue statute to achieve venire discrimination
{86} We have said that the State is forbidden from accomplishing "indirectly at the selection of the petit jury what it has not been able to accomplish directly at the selection of the venire." State v. Aragon, 109 N.M. 197, 201, 784 P.2d 16, 20 (1989). By analogy to this principle, House argues that the State cannot indir
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