Man convicted of killing boy may be set free because prosecutors racially profiled the jury pool

“Black.’ ‘Jewish.’ ‘Short, fat troll.’ Handwritten notes on jury questionnaires suggest prosecutorial misconduct that may overturn death penalty cases.

Lance Clark was 9 years old when he was shot dead in a robbery. A man named Ernest Dykes was convicted of the 1993 Oakland murder and sentenced to death. But the boy’s family says prosecutors just told them Dykes could be released from prison in nine months to a year. “Lance was a happy, funny, loving, sweet little boy,” his sisters told CNN in a family statement. “He was robbed of a future.” Dykes might be released because, while preparing for his appeal, an Alameda County deputy district attorney found in the dusty case files some handwritten notes about potential jurors from the trial back in the 1990s. One potential juror in the Dykes case file is described as a “Short, fat troll.” Like other Black potential jurors – and only Black potential jurors – her race is noted. The letters “FB” are written next to her name, apparently noting her gender and race. “Must go,” is written next to the name of a Black man, who is described as “MB.” Another juror has the word “Jewish” underlined on their questionnaire. Farther down, a handwritten note reads: “I liked him better than any other Jew. But no way.” There were no Black or Jewish jurors seated at the trial. “When you have serious prosecutorial misconduct, that means that the conviction is a wrongful conviction,” said current Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. “And so, it’s a question of whether or not we’re able to negotiate a resolution, or whether we have to go back to trial.”