WASHINGTON (AP) – There was nothing subtle about the ethnic slurs a juror in Colorado is reported to have made during deliberations over a Hispanic defendant charged with inappropriately touching teenage girls.
Two other jurors claim their colleague determined that defendant Miguel Angel Pena Rodriguez was guilty because Pena Rodriguez is “Mexican, and Mexican men take whatever they want.”
Now the Supreme Court will decide how to reconcile two tenets of the legal system that clash in Pena Rodriguez’s case: trial by an impartial jury and secrecy in jury deliberations.
The court is hearing argument Tuesday in Pena Rodriguez’s bid to upend his criminal conviction.
The Constitution guarantees criminal defendants a trial by an impartial jury. Secrecy in jury deliberations is an American legal principle that goes back more than 200 years.