Torres-Hernandez

I. Background

On February 7, 2005, after a jury trial, the district court sentenced Jose Antonio Torres-Hernandez to fifty-one months’ imprisonment and three years’ supervised release for being a deported alien within the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Torres-Hernandez had previously been deported on October 5, 1996.

Before his trial, Torres-Hernandez moved to dismiss his indictment. He argued that, in violation of the Sixth Amend- ment, the systematic exclusion of Hispanics in Southern Dis- trict of California grand jury venires had resulted in a grand jury that did not represent a fair cross-section of the commu- nity. UNITED STATES v. TORRES-HERNANDEZ 5177 To support his motion, Torres-Hernandez presented the expert opinion and statistical analysis of Dr. John R. Weeks. Weeks prepared evidence that the overall population of the Southern District of California, composed of San Diego and Imperial Counties, is 28.9 percent Hispanic. Weeks also found that, of individuals in the district “age eligible” for jury service, 24.8 percent were Hispanic. Finally, Weeks calcu- lated that “jury-eligible” Hispanic individuals comprised 16.1 percent of…