United States v. Osman Norales

MEMORANDUM

Osman Norales was convicted of conspiracy and false claims against the United States. He raises three issues on appeal, none of which warrants reversal. We deal with them seriatim.

First, Norales argues that the district judge erred in denying his motion to dismiss based upon the under-representation of Hispanics on the grand and petit juries. This claim could arguably have some merit under our en banc decision in United States v. Hernandez-Estrada, which was decided while Norales’s appeal was pending, and which significantly modified the legal framework for assessing fair cross-section claims. 749 F.3d 1154, 1164-65 (9th Cir.2014) (en banc). Nevertheless, even there, we did not categorically reject the “absolute disparity test,” which the district judge applied in denying Norales’s under-representation claim. Id. at 1165 n. 6. Instead, we held that district courts “must consider the evidence proffered by the defendant ... and employ the most appropriate method, or methods, applicable to the specific challenge in the context of the particular jury pool at issue.” Id. at 1165 . Consequently, we granted a stay of the proceedings to allow Norales to supplement or amend…