By Laila Kearney
Aug 13 (Reuters) – The New Mexico Supreme Court has refused
to overturn a murder conviction over the dismissal of a juror
with limited English skills – but reminded lawyers and judges
the state constitution allows non-English speaking citizens to
serve on juries.
Convicted killer Michael Samora asked the state high court to
overturn his 2008 first-degree murder conviction on the grounds
that the trial judge had violated his rights by excusing a
prospective juror who had difficulty understanding English.
The five-member court, in a unanimous ruling handed down on
Monday, rejected that argument, saying that such an error by the
trial judge was not enough to throw out Samora’s conviction, and
that his attorneys should have raised the issue at trial.
But in a 10-page written opinion, Justice Charles Daniels
cautioned that the right of non-English speaking citizens to be
jurors was affirmed by the state constitution.
“Accordingly, while we affirm defendant’s convictions, we
stress to trial judges and lawyers that they have a shared
responsibility to make every reasonable effort to protect the
right of our non-English-speaking citizens to serve on New
Mexico juries,” Daniels wrote.
The other four justices concurred in that opinion.
The defense raised six additional challenges to his
conviction, including a lack of DNA evidence and problems with
witness testimonies, claims the Supreme Court deemed
insufficient in its ruling.
Samora was convicted of first-degree murder and other
charges for the 2004 bludgeoning death of his girlfriend and
robbery and stabbing at an Albuquerque convenience store.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Lisa Shumaker)
