UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Mario PEREZ-HERNANDEZ, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 80-5165
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
April 15, 1982.
672 F.2d 1380
Although not contested by defendants, we briefly note that the statute of limitations has expired on any arguably applicable express waiver of immunity. An action to adjudicate title to land in which the United States asserts an interest must be commenced within twelve years of the date the opposing claimant knew or should have known of the United States’ claim.
The remaining contentions on appeal can be quickly rejected. Defendants argue that their claims based on violations of sections 1981 and 1982 of the Civil Rights Act,
Accordingly, the decision of the district court is
AFFIRMED.
James J. Hogan, Joseph Mincberg, Miami, Fla., John R. Martin, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellant.
David Kairys, Philadelphia, Pa., Charles Stephen Ralston, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., New York City, for amici curiae.
Atlee W. Wampler, III, U. S. Atty., Barbara D. Schwartz, Asst. U. S. Atty., Miami, Fla., Mervyn Hamburg, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellee.
PER CURIAM:
This appeal challenges the selection of federal grand jury foremen by district judges in the Southern District of Florida between 1974 and 1978. Appellant argues that his indictment should have been dismissed because women and blacks were unconstitutionally excluded from serving as foremen. His claim is based on two separate grounds. First, he contends that the Sixth Amendment and the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968,
The relevant facts concerning appellant are brief. In January of 1979, a federal grand jury in Miami returned a three count indictment which charged appellant and two others with various drug related offenses. Appellant subsequently filed a pretrial motion to dismiss the indictment alleging race and sex discrimination in the selection of grand jury foremen. The government and appellant then entered into a stipulation that permitted the parties to adopt the record of United States v. Jenison, another pending case which raised the same pretrial issue. Appellant further agreed to be bound by the decision in Jenison for trial and appellate purposes of his case.
On December 18, 1979, the Jenison motion to dismiss was denied, United States v. Jenison, 485 F.Supp. 655 (S.D.Fla.1979), and accordingly, appellant‘s motion was denied. Appellant then waived a jury trial and was convicted on a single count of heroin possession with the intent to distribute in violation of
I
United States v. Jenison
The trial judge in Jenison made the following relevant findings of fact:
5. Blacks comprise sixteen and six tenths percent (16.6%) of the citizens of the Southern District of Florida aged 18 to 69.
6. Fifty grand juries were empaneled in the Southern District of Florida during the period from 1974 to 1978. One black was chosen to serve as grand jury foreperson in the Southern District of Florida from 1974 to 1978.
7. Women comprise fifty-three percent (53%) of the citizens of the Southern District of Florida aged 18 to 69.
8. Of the fifty grand juries empaneled in the Southern District of Florida during the period from 1974 to 1978, five women were selected to serve as grand jury forepersons.
*
11. I find that, with the exception of Judge Roettger‘s practice of alternating between male and female forepersons, the foreperson selection practices of the judges who participated in the questioned empanelments are based on neutral selection criteria and are not prejudicially motivated. There was no purposeful discrimination of the selection of forepersons for the fifty grand juries empaneled in the Southern District from 1974 to 1978.
Record at 663-64. None of these findings are contested.3 Both parties, however, are dissatisfied with the conclusions of law made in Jenison. The trial judge concluded that the fair cross section protections of the Sixth Amendment and the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968 are not applicable to the office of grand jury foreman. United States v. Jenison, 485 F.Supp. at 661. He also found, however, that the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment due process clause does apply to the selection of a federal grand jury foreman. He
II
Issues
Appellant presents two issues in this appeal. First, he urges that the trial judge erred in finding “fair cross section” protections are inapplicable to the office of grand jury foreman. Second, he argues that, as a matter of law, the rebuttal testimony offered by the government was insufficient under Fifth Amendment standards to defeat a prima facie case of discrimination. The government also challenges two rulings of the trial court. It contends that the office of federal grand jury foreman is of no constitutional or statutory significance, and therefore, appellant cannot seek relief through the protections of the Fifth Amendment. In the alternative, it claims that the trial court erred in concluding that the defendant established a prima facie case of discrimination under the appropriate analysis. Of course, as a final alternative, it argues that the trial court should be affirmed on all issues. We note that these issues have never been raised before a circuit court in the context of a federal grand jury foreman, although several district courts have addressed similar claims.4 After a careful review of appellant‘s constitu-
III
Fair Cross Section Rights
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution grants every criminal defendant “the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury.” The Supreme Court has interpreted this right to mean, among other things, that a petit jury venire must represent a fair cross section of its community. Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975); Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). The Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968,
Few courts have addressed this question.6 The Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968 does not refer to the office of grand jury foreman. Therefore, we believe the proper course of analysis is to examine the purpose of the fair cross section requirement and determine if it is applicable here. Taylor v. Louisiana offers a comprehensive, but relatively brief discussion of this purpose:
The purpose of a jury is to guard against the exercise of arbitrary power—to make available the common sense judgment of the community as a hedge against the overzealous or mistaken prosecutor and in preference to the professional or perhaps overconditioned or biased response of a judge. This prophylactic vehicle is not provided if the jury pool is made up of only special segments of the populace or if large, distinct groups are excluded from the pool. Community participation in the administration of the criminal law, moreover, is not only consistent with our democratic heritage but is also critical to public confidence in the fairness of the criminal justice system.
419 U.S. at 530, 95 S.Ct. at 698 (citations omitted). Moreover, “[w]hen any large and identifiable segment of the community is excluded from jury service, the effect is to remove from the jury room qualities of human nature and varieties of human experience, the range of which is unknown and perhaps unknowable.” Peters v. Kiff, 407 U.S. 493, 503, 92 S.Ct. 2163, 2169, 33 L.Ed.2d 83 (1972). We conclude, therefore, that the purpose of fair cross section protection is to provide a criminal defendant with grand and petit juries which are microcosms of the community. In this way, the Sixth Amendment right to an “impartial jury” is given full effect by insuring that distinct groups of the community are represented, but are not given the opportunity to dominate, or, in the alternative, denied the opportunity to participate, in a democratic system of justice. Accordingly, the fair cross section analysis is only applicable to groups, such as a grand or petit jury, which can represent society as a whole. One person alone cannot represent the divergent views, experience, and ideas of the distinct groups which form a community. Thus, a grand jury foreman is a member of the group which represents a cross section of his or her community, but he or she cannot be a fair cross section of that community.
IV
Equal Protection
Criminal defendants in state courts may challenge discriminatory selections of grand and petit juries through the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. 625, 92 S.Ct. 1221, 31 L.Ed.2d 536 (1972). Criminal defendants in federal court are granted the same rights through an equal protection element of the Fifth Amendment due process clause: “[W]hile the Fifth Amendment contains no equal protection clause, it does forbid discrimination that is ‘so unjustifiable as to be violative of due process.‘” Schneider v. Rusk, 377 U.S. 163, 84 S.Ct. 1187, 12 L.Ed.2d 218 (1964). “If a classification is invalid under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, it is also invalid under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.”7 United States v. Gordon-Nikkar, 518 F.2d 972 (5th Cir. 1975). Therefore, appellant‘s Fifth Amendment claim is governed by the principles and law which have developed under the familiar Fourteenth Amendment equal protection cases.
Before addressing the merits of appellant‘s case, we must first discuss a preliminary question of standing. Appellant is a male of hispanic descent who claims a denial of equal protection because blacks and women have been excluded from serving as grand jury foremen. Conflicting language in several recent Supreme Court cases has clouded his right to assert this claim. In Peters v. Kiff, 407 U.S. at 498, 92 S.Ct. at 2166, the opinion of the Court discussed this question in an equal protection context and concluded that “when a grand or petit jury has been selected on an imper-
We must also address a second preliminary issue. The government argues that the position of federal grand jury foreman is constitutionally insignificant, and accordingly, discrimination in their selection does not require dismissal of subsequent indictments. In Rose v. Mitchell, the Supreme Court assumed without deciding that “discrimination with regard to the selection of only the foreman requires that a subsequent conviction be set aside, just as if the discrimination proved had tainted the selection of the entire jury venire.” 443 U.S. at 551 n. 4, 99 S.Ct. at 2998. That assumption has been accepted twice by judges of this court. Guice v. Fortenberry, 661 F.2d 496 (5th Cir. 1981) (en banc); Williams v. State of Mississippi, 608 F.2d 1021 (5th Cir. 1979). “If convictions must be set aside because of taint of the grand jury, we see no reason to differentiate the result because discrimination affected only the foreman.” Guice v. Fortenberry, 661 F.2d at 499. We cannot now ignore these decisions and adopt appellee‘s argument.
With these questions resolved, we return to a review of the holding below. The trial judge in Jenison found that a prima facie case of discrimination was established by the defendant. United States v. Jenison, 485 F.Supp. at 662. We agree. In order to support a prima facie case in the context of grand jury foremen, a defendant must establish three factors. First, the group allegedly discriminated against must be “one that is a recognizable, distinct class, singled out for different treatment under the laws.” Second, the group must be substantially underrepresented in the office of
The final issue we must address is whether the government sufficiently rebutted the presumption of invidious discrimination. We conclude that it did. Specific criteria for what constitutes a rebuttal case have never been developed, however several guidelines are well known. The central focus of a rebuttal case must be on a “showing that racially neutral selection procedures have produced the disparity.” Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. at 631-32, 92 S.Ct. at 1226. Moreover, “affirmations of good faith in making individual selections are insufficient to dispel a prima facie case of systematic exclusion.” Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. at 632, 92 S.Ct. at 1226. In other words, a mere denial of discriminatory intent will not suffice. Turner v. Fouche, 396 U.S. at 361, 90 S.Ct. at 540. This is not to say, however, that testimony alone is per se insufficient. We believe instead that testimony from the alleged discriminators should be viewed with a great deal of judicial scrutiny. The trial judge below specifically acknowledged this duty and still found for the government. United States v. Jenison, 485 F.Supp. at 665. After a careful review of the record, we find that he reached a proper conclusion.
The government‘s rebuttal case below consisted entirely of testimony from eight district judges involved in the foreman selection process for the years in question. Each judge testified that he acted independently of the other judges in choosing a grand jury foreman, although each employed similar guidelines in making a selection. These guidelines generally consisted of four separate factors: (1) occupation and work history; (2) leadership and management experiences; (3) length of time in the community; and (4) attentiveness during the jury empanelment.10 These factors directly relate to the ability to perform the administrative functions and duties of a grand jury foreman.11 This is
AFFIRMED.
MORGAN, Circuit Judge, specially concurring:
I concur, but write separately to express my opinion with regard to one issue. In Rose v. Mitchell the Supreme Court assumed without deciding that “discrimination with regard to the selection of only the foreman requires that a subsequent conviction be set aside, just as if the discrimination proved had tainted the selection of the entire grand jury venire.” 443 U.S. at 551 n. 4, 99 S.Ct. at 2997. This assumption was later accepted as law by the former Fifth Circuit: “If convictions must be set aside because of taint of the grand jury, we see no reason to differentiate the result because discrimination affected only the foreman.” Guice v. Fortenberry, 661 F.2d at 499. This position has never been fully explained or examined, and for reasons set forth below I believe it is erroneously applied to this case.
In Rose v. Mitchell the Supreme Court addressed the selection of grand jury foremen in Tennessee state courts. The majority opinion discussed the long standing precedent of requiring the dismissal of a criminal indictment if discrimination has occurred in the selection of the grand jury. This body of law, however, was not developed to correct actual harm or prejudice to the indicted defendant. The fact that a defendant received a completely fair and impartial petit jury trial does not abate his right to indictment by a properly constituted grand jury.1 Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. at 551, 99 S.Ct. at 2997; Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. at 628, 92 S.Ct. at 1224. Moreover, it does not matter if the defendant is not a member of the class excluded from grand jury service. Peters v. Kiff, 407 U.S. at 498, at 92 S.Ct. 2166. Instead, the reason a defendant is allowed to contest discrimination in the selection of a grand jury is to protect the appearance of justice and the integrity of our judicial system. “Selection of members of a grand jury because they are of one race and not another destroys the appearance of justice and thereby casts doubt on the integrity of the judicial process.” Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. at 555-56, 99 S.Ct. at 2999-3000. I zealously agree with this reasoning. Without the respect of society, our judicial system cannot function properly. Thus, the social costs associated with eliminating discrimination in the selection of a grand jury have been well justified. See Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. at 557-58, 99 S.Ct. at 3000-01.
I believe, however, that this policy is necessarily limited in application. For example, if discrimination is found in the hiring of courtroom deputies, clerks, or the admin-
My position is not inconsistent with Rose v. Mitchell. A grand jury foreman in the Tennessee state court system is chosen by a judge from the entire population for a two year term of office. He or she is then added to the randomly selected grand jury panel as the thirteenth member. Thus, discrimination in the selection of Tennessee grand jury foremen infiltrates discrimination into the selection of the entire grand jury panel. This is not the case in the federal system below where the grand jury panel was randomly and properly selected and only then a foreman was chosen from that group. Moreover, a Tennessee grand jury foreman is expected to assist the district attorney in investigating criminal activity and may order the issuance of subpoenas. See Rose v. Mitchell, 443 U.S. at 548 n. 2, 99 S.Ct. at 2996. The absence of the foreman‘s signature results in a fatally defective indictment. Bird v. State, 103 Tenn. 343, 52 S.W. 1076 (1899). In contrast, the only similarity between a Tennessee and a federal grand jury foreman is the name of the position.
