Dykes v. Ayers

Filing 166

Order Lifting Confidentiality of Jury Selection Files. Signed by Judge Vince Chhabria on 4/22/2024. (vclc3, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 4/22/2024)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

ERNEST EDWARD DYKES,

Case No. 11-cv-04454-SI (VC)

Plaintiff,
v.
MICHAEL MARTEL, et al.,
Defendants.

ORDER LIFTING
CONFIDENTIALITY OF JURY
SELECTION FILES
Re: Dkt. No. 164

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.
Dated: April 22, 2024
______________________________________
VINCE CHHABRIA
United States District Judge