RICHMOND, Calif. – A 73-year-old Black man who was incarcerated on San Quentin’s death row for three decades is suing Alameda County, specifically the District Attorney’s Office, for $290 million, alleging that he never got a fair trial because the jury who convicted him was chosen unconstitutionally – all but one were white.
‘Unconstitutional jury selection’
What they’re saying:
Curtis Lee Ervin, who now lives in Richmond and declined an interview through his attorneys, filed a federal suit on May 27, alleging that the DA’s Office engaged in an “unconstitutional pattern and practice of discrimination in jury selection,” kicking off prospective Black and Jewish jurors, whom prosecutors felt wouldn’t send defendants for capital punishment.
This pattern was practiced for decades, starting in the 1980s, and was part of a longtime unwritten policy of the DA’s Office, according to the 33-page complaint, filed by attorneys Pamala Sayasane and Brian Pomerantz.
The lawsuit alleges a string of prosecutors from 1980 through 2012 promoted unofficial policies that paved the way for this racial discrimination to take place, often by not disciplining prosecutors who allegedly excluded certain jurors in violation of the Constitution. The practice was taught and shared among employees in the DA’s office, the lawsuit claimed, highlighting once when a deputy district attorney said that Jewish people be left off juries during a 1992 conference in San Diego.…