Ruiz-Martinez v. Superior Court
Annotate this CaseRuiz-Martinez was charged with two counts of murder; among the special allegations was that each murder was committed for a criminal street gang, Pen. Code, 190.2(a)(22). Ruiz-Martinez unsuccessfully moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the prosecutor improperly dismissed three grand jurors in violation of section 939.5, the separation of powers doctrine, and Ruiz-Martinez’s due process rights and resulting in an indictment “not found, endorsed, and presented as prescribed in” Penal Code 995(a)(1)(A)). The California Supreme Court remanded in light of its 2018 “Avitia” decision. On remand, the court of appeal concluded that the record does not show that the prosecutor’s actions reasonably might have adversely affected the grand jury’s impartiality or independence or violated the separation of powers doctrine or petitioner’s rights to due process. Although the prosecutor lacked authority to excuse grand jurors (two of whom stated that they could not be impartial because of gang connections), there is a high probability that the foreperson would have removed them upon advice from the prosecutor; their removal helped to ensure the grand jury’s impartiality. There is nothing suggesting that the grand jury as ultimately composed was not properly constituted or contained any jurors who were possibly biased. Nothing indicates that the prosecutor might have skewed the grand jury’s ultimate composition in favor of the prosecution or improperly affected the decision-making process.
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