Prosecutors excluded Jewish people from juries in one California county for decades, review suggests
Several prosecutors in Alameda County, California, excluded Jewish people from juries in past decades, according to the Alameda County district attorney. (Image from Shutterstock)
Several prosecutors in Alameda County, California, excluded Jewish people from juries in past decades, according to the Alameda County district attorney.
District Attorney Pamela Price’s office is reviewing all capital convictions in which an Alameda County defendant is still on death row, the New York Times reports. As many as 35 cases could be affected, potentially leading to overturned convictions and new trials.
“It’s not limited to one or two prosecutors but a variety of prosecutors,” Price said in a press conference covered by the Death Penalty Information Center. “The evidence that we have uncovered suggests plainly that people did not receive a fair trial in Alameda County, and as a result, we have to review all the files.”
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California ordered the review after internal notes from a case file for defendant Ernest Dykes revealed prosecutors’ thoughts in 1995 about prospective Jewish jurors. Dykes was convicted and sentenced to death for killing a 9-year-old boy.
The New York Times published some of the notes.
“Banker. Jew?” one prosecution note read. “Jew? Yes,” another note read.
In an April 22 order allowing release of the notes, Chhabria said the notes in Dykes’ case, along with evidence in other cases, “constitute strong evidence that, in prior decades, prosecutors from the office were engaged in a pattern of serious misconduct.”
Jewish people were thought to be reluctant to impose the death penalty after the Holocaust, the New York Times explains.
Prosecution notes also appear to show that prosecutors excluded Black jurors, according to Price’s office.
Price is already contacting families of victims to let them know that there could be retrials. She told the New York Times that although the review is still ongoing, the practice of excluding Jewish people from juries appeared to be widespread.
“When you intentionally exclude people based on their race, their religion, their gender or any protected category, it violates the Constitution,” she said.
