The Supreme Court will hear a case next month where justices will determine if racially charged comments during jury deliberations are grounds for breaking juror confidentiality.
In a 2010 sexual assault trial in Colorado, a juror identified as H.C. during deliberations said of the defendant, Miguel Angel Pea Rodriguez, “I think he did it because he’s Mexican, and Mexican men take whatever they want.”
Pea Rodriguez was accused of harassing and trying to grope teenage girls in a bathroom at a racetrack in 2007. The court convicted Pea Rodriguez of three misdemeanors but deadlocked over a felony charge. He was sentenced to only two years’ probation.
