Southland : Asian Kept Off Jury, Court Upsets Conviction in Teens’ Road Deaths

In a scathing opinion, a state appellate court today overturned the murder conviction of a man who killed two Costa Mesa teen-agers in an auto accident as he fled from police, ruling that the prosecutor discriminated against Asians in jury selection.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana ruled that the exclusion of a Vietnamese immigrant because of what the prosecutor felt was his inability to understand English was illegally based on a racial stereotype. The court voided the two second-degree murder convictions of Ruben Valle, who is serving two prison sentences of 15 years to life in prison for the 1986 deaths.

Dep. Dist. Atty. Richard King’s questioning of prospective jurors was the subject of scathing criticism in the appeals court opinion, written by Justice Edward J. Wallin. King showed bias, the court concluded, by disqualifying Tuoc Vo, a mechanic and Vietnamese immigrant. King stated that in his experience, “members of the Oriental race” have difficulty learning English and “serious problems in understanding words that have abstract meanings to them.”