Court Gives Murder Suspect Juror Data

California’s First District Court of Appeal has granted a gang murder suspect access to the names of zip codes of prospective jurors in his trial.  Gary Klien of the Mercury News reports that attorneys representing Edenilson Misael Alfaro, an MS-13 gang member, won the unanimous appellate court ruling so that they can explore the under-representation of Latinos in the Marin County jury pool list.   The December 9 opinion by Judge Mark Simons brushed aside concerns about juror privacy noting, “We find no basis to conclude that privacy rights preclude disclosure of the names and zip codes on those lists.”

Alfaro is charged with the 2016 murder of a 17-year-old high school student in the community of Novato.   The victim was shot and hacked to death with machetes.  Alfaro has also been charged with murders in Washington State and Maryland.  MS-13, a brutal gang that originated in Los Angeles, is widely known for its brutality and revenge.  With the names and zip codes of prospective jurors, gang members will be able to identify and track down jury members for intimidation to prevent them from voting to convict Alfaro.