Three men convicted in the 2019 killing of a 21-year-old man in San Jose have had their convictions and sentences wiped out, after a state appeals court found that a deputy district attorney's pit bull analogy and predator language during jury selection crossed a legal line meant to root out racial bias in the courtroom.
The California Sixth District Court of Appeal ruled on Oct. 23 that language used by a prosecutor during jury selection violated California's Racial Justice Act, according to The Mercury News. The panel vacated the convictions and sentences of Ricardo Diaz, Alexander Jose Toledo and Keonte Jordun Ray Smith, all from Stockton, and sent the case back down to Santa Clara County Superior Court.
The underlying case dates to a shooting just before 2 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2019, in San Jose that killed 21-year-old Brian Castro, as reported at the time by East Bay Times. The shooting was described as a drug-deal ambush. The three men were convicted in connection with the case; Diaz and Toledo each received sentences of life without parole, and Smith received a 13-year sentence.
A Pit Bull Analogy Takes Center Stage
The dispute centers on the prosecutor's comments during jury selection.
Separately, the appeals panel found that the prosecutor used predator language. The opinion said an objective observer would view the prosecutor's analogy as problematic.
What the Racial Justice Act Requires
California's Racial Justice Act provides relief for criminal defendants prejudiced by explicit or systemic racial bias in charges, convictions or sentences. Under Penal Code section 745, the state may not seek or obtain a criminal conviction, or seek, obtain or impose a sentence, on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin. When a court finds a violation in an entered conviction, the remedy is stark: per Stanford Law School's explainer on the law, the court must vacate the conviction and sentence, declare it legally invalid, and order new proceedings consistent with the act.
California's Racial Justice Act was enacted in 2020, as State Court Report describes.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office deferred comment to the state attorney general's office, which did not respond to a request for comment, per the Mercury News report.
What Happens Next
The case now returns to Santa Clara County Superior Court, where it will be overseen by a different judge since Ryan has since retired. All three men are expected to be transferred from state prison back to local jail custody as the case moves forward in the superior court.
The case lands amid a broader wave of California appellate activity testing the boundaries of the Racial Justice Act. The state's high court recently issued its first rulings interpreting the law in a batch of decisions, as detailed by State Court Report, including a harmless-error standard for racial-bias language in cases tried to judgment before the act took effect. In one high-profile example from earlier this year, the California Supreme Court overturned death row inmate Anthony Bankston's sentence under the law.
