Native Americans were wrongly excluded from the jury for a Native man who was convicted of murder in California, a divided 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said on Monday.

By a 6-5 vote, the court said the prosecutor in Humboldt County singled out Native and Native-looking jurors. Papers quoted extensively in the decision show Worth Dikeman [pictured at right] referred to Native jurors as "darker skinned" and described them as "resistive of the criminal justice system generally and somewhat suspicious of the system."

Yet the California courts refused to reconsider the conviction of Richard Kesser. That was "unreasonable," the six judges of the 9th Circuit said.

Writing separately, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw cited the "raw prosecutorial bias against Native Americans." He said Dikeman, now a deputy district attorney, displayed "contempt for and stark prejudice against Native Americans" in his handling of the murder case.

Five judges dissented. They said the California courts properly considered the jury exclusions when Kesser raised them.

Kesser was convicted of first degree murder for the murder of his former wife. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

The decision means the county has to submit the case against Kesser again.

Dikeman recently sought election as the district attorney but lost. Native women from the county opposed his campaign, citing his actions in the Kesser case.

Humboldt County is 5.7 percent Native American and is home to Yurok, Hoopa, Wiyot and other tribes.

Get the Decision:
Kessert v. Cambra (September 11, 2006)

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