California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Hernandez, E053487 (Cal. App. 2012):
"[W]e review the record independently to '. . . resolve the legal question whether the record supports an inference that the prosecutor excused a juror' on a prohibited discriminatory basis. [Citations.]" (People v. Bell (2007) 40 Cal.4th 582, 597.) "Though proof of a prima facie case may be made from any information in the record available to the trial court, . . . 'certain types of evidence . . . will be relevant for this purpose. Thus the party may show that his opponent has struck most or all of the members of the identified group from the venire, or has used a disproportionate number of his peremptories against the group. He may also demonstrate that the jurors in question share only this one characteristictheir membership in the groupand that in all other respects they are as heterogeneous as the community as a whole. Next, the showing may be supplemented when appropriate by such circumstances as the failure of his opponent to engage these same jurors in more than desultory voir dire, or indeed to ask them any questions at all. Lastly, . . . the defendant need not be a member of the excluded group in order to complain of a violation of the representative cross-section rule; yet if he is, and especially if in addition his alleged victim is a member of the group to which the majority of the remaining jurors belong, these facts may also be called to the court's attention.' [Citations.]" (Ibid.)
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