A California prosecutor is reviewing 35 death penalty cases records suggested that prosecutors purposefully excluded Jewish and Black jurors from capital trials, reports The Guardian. Alameda County District Attorney Paula Price said Monday that her office found handwritten notes documenting discriminatory jury selection tactics in the 1990s, and her office will conduct the review of other cases “for any signs of being tainted by prosecutorial misconduct”.
Price's office released excerpts of prosecutors’ notes from the case of Ernest Dykes, who was sentenced to death in 1995 in Alameda County and whose appeal is ongoing. An unnamed prosecutor had described a prospective juror, a Black woman, as a "short, fat, troll’." Prosecutors also marked down when prospective jurors were Jewish, repeatedly writing “Jew?” next to some people’s names. Brian Pomerantz, an attorney for Dykes, praised Price for bringing the records to light. “It is overwhelming for Mr. Dykes to learn that this kind of misconduct and prejudice was happening in his case. After 31 years in prison, he’s learning he didn’t get the fair trial he should have gotten." Pomerantz said the problem of discriminatory jury exclusion in Alameda county was systemic. Evidence of the exclusion of Black women and Jewish people from juries has led to three people being resentenced in the county, according to reporting from KQED.