Opinion
11-cv-04454-SI (VC)
04-22-2024
ERNEST EDWARD DYKES, Plaintiff, v. MICHAEL MARTEL, et al., Defendants.
ORDER LIFTING CONFIDENTIALITY OF JURY SELECTION FILES RE: DKT. NO. 164
VINCE CHHABRIA UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
In this case, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, consistent with its legal and ethical obligations, disclosed the prosecutor's jury selection notes to the defense and the undersigned judge. These notes-especially when considered in conjunction with evidence presented in other cases-constitute strong evidence that, in prior decades, prosecutors from the office were engaged in a pattern of serious misconduct, automatically excluding Jewish and African American jurors in death penalty cases. On April 2, 2024, this Court ordered the defense not to use or disclose these records to anyone outside the context of this defendant's challenge to his confinement. That order is now lifted.
IT IS SO ORDERED.