Judge: Prosecutor fabricated tainting death penalty jury

By DAVID KRAVETS, AP Legal Affairs Writer
Last Updated 8:24 am PDT Wednesday, April 6, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The former Alameda County prosecutor who claimed he conspired with a trial judge to exclude Jewish jurors in a capital case that sent the defendant to death row is a liar, a judge ruled in an opinion forwarded to the California Supreme Court.

Judge Kevin Murphy, appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the allegations from John Quatman, said Tuesday the former prosecutor's assertions "are not true" and that he is "dishonest and unethical."

Last month, Quatman testified before Murphy that he colluded with now-deceased Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stanley Golde to exclude Jews so the jury would be more likely to send a killer to San Quentin State Prison.

Quatman recalled a private lecture about excluding Jews he said the judge gave him on April 28, 1987, while they were picking a jury in the capital case of Fred Freeman, a white man later sentenced to death for killing a bar patron during a robbery in Berkeley.

Murphy, however, concluded after a weeklong trial that the conversation never took place, that no Jews were unlawfully removed and that Quatman "had a motive to embarrass the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in general, and District Attorney Tom Orloff in particular."

Murphy noted that Orloff had disciplined Quatman, now a Montana criminal defense attorney, for making disparaging remarks to a female colleague. Murphy said Quatman's "anger continued" even after Quatman left the office years ago, and that it took 16 years for Quatman to come forward with the allegations.

The Supreme Court ordered Murphy to investigate Quatman's allegations when they surfaced two years ago and likely would have granted Freeman a new trial if the allegations were proven true. The court is not likely to do so now.

Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, said the office was "alarmed" by Quatman's allegations "and urged the Supreme Court to direct a fact-finding mission."

Barankin said Murphy "reached the correct conclusion."

Following Quatman's allegations, other Alameda County defense lawyers have told the California justices that the Alameda County district attorney's office had an unwritten policy, in violation of federal and state law, of excluding Jews and black women from capital juries from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. The policy was based on the theory those jurors would be lenient to defendants.

Orloff and his predecessor, John Meehan, have steadfastly denied the allegations, and the justices have not addressed them. Orloff was not immediately available for comment Tuesday. Freeman's attorneys did not immediately return telephone calls.

Excluding jurors based on religion, race or ethnicity violates state and federal law and creates grounds for a new trial.

Ivan Golde, Judge Golde's son, praised the verdict, saying "they were trying to defame my father. It was a cheap shot."

Quatman did not return calls for comment.

The case is in re Fred H. Freeman, S122590.

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Editors: David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for more than a decade.