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Exclusion of jurors by race challenged
Posted Dec 19, 2007
Publication: Rocky Mountain News;
Date:2007 Dec 18; Section:Front; Page Number: 29
A Racial issue spurs court review of two homicide cases
By Ivan Moreno ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
morenoi@RockyMountain News.comor 303-954-2895
The Colorado Supreme Court said Monday it will review two cases in which defendants convicted in homicide cases claim minorities are excluded from juries in Arapahoe County.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the defendants,their convictions could be reversed, said Paul Wolff, chief deputy district attorney of appeals for the 18th Judicial District, which includes Arapahoe County.
One of the defendants, Trevon Deon Washington, 29, was convicted in July 2003 of three counts of first-degree murder in the execution-style slayings of David Howard, 17, Paul Stone, 18, and Naomi Prince, 18, in 1998. Washington, also known as Venda Johnson Jr., was sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors said Washington and two other men, Dante Owens and Randy Canister — also serving life terms — went to the victims’ Aurora home, hogtied them and shot them.
Washington had faced the death penalty at one point, but he was spared the punishment after the court deemed him mildly retarded. At the time, prosecutor Richard Bloch said Washington fired most of the shots in the killings. In its decision issued Monday, the state Supreme Court said it would review whether the Colorado Court of Appeals should have overturned Washington’s convictions based on “the State’s non-compliance with the ‘fair cross-section’ requirement” of the Sixth Amendment, which requires that a jury pool reflect the population’s makeup.
The defendant in the other case, Lorenzo Scott Sayles, 32, was convicted in December 2003 of second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the death of Joseph Woodson, 23. Prosecutors said Sayles hit Woodson in the head with a beer bottle and shoved him into oncoming traffic, where he was hit by a car and later died.
Sayles was sentenced to 49 years in prison. In Sayles’ case, the state Supreme Court said it would review whether he should have been given a new jury panel or new trial based on Sayles’ claim “of Arapahoe County’s systematic exclusion of African-Americans from the venire.”
“I don’t know for sure why they would take this issue up,” Wolff said. “It’s a pretty complex issue.” Wolff said prosecutors and defense attorneys don’t control the jury pool they can choose from. Instead, it’s the Office of the State Court Administrator that provides jury members, he said.
Wolff and Jeff Pagliuca, a criminal-defense attorney, said the core problem cited by Washington’s and Sayles’ lawyers is Arapahoe County’s rule not to accept potential jurors who have already served in Aurora Municipal Court. Since most minorities in the county live in Aurora, Washington’s petition claims, the list of potential jurors for county court is narrowed by the restriction of not being allowed to serve twice. That practice ceased in March 2003, Wolff said.
For Pagliuca, Monday’s decision has special bearing in the case of one of his clients, who also is claiming the jury selected was not a fair cross-section of the county where he was tried. “It’s an extremely important issue for the court to take a look at,” Pagliuca said. “In my view, there’s been problems with inclusions of various of ethnic minorities in how juries are selected.”
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