In an Idaho tax-fraud trial, just as the jury is on the cusp of a verdict, one juror informs the judge that another juror made a racist comment about people of Mexican ethnicity. Things like, "The Mexicans, all they want to do is screw us over anyway”; Defendant’s employer "could have come up from the cartel”; and "when Mexicans come here, they act like they can't speak English to get away with certain things."
After interviewing all the jurors, the judge denies defense's motion for mistrial, excuses the racist juror, and the remaining 11 return a guilty verdict on several charges. Ninth Circuit: Um, “impartial jury” does not include a juror workshopping anti-Mexican stereotypes in the deliberation room. There's a strong presumption of prejudice when a racially biased juror is involved in deliberations, one the gov't didn't overcome here by demonstrating it was harmless. New trial. Dissent: We have now “created an insurmountable standard” for the government to satisfy to rebut the presumption in the future.
The case is United States v. Sanchez, 23-2533 (9th Cir. May 12, 2026).
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