State v. Salinas

This case presents two issues. First, the constitutionality of a prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude Spanish-surnamed veniremen from serving in a jury trial of a Mexican-American defendant. Second, the correctness of an instruction pertaining to the use of force in resisting the arrest of another. We uphold the validity of *113the defendant’s conviction both as to the jury’s composition and as to the instruction on self-defense.

The facts leading to the trial and conviction of Trinidad Salinas are as follows: Officer Earl J. Middleton, of the police department of Granger,…