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Law practice uses death-penalty appeal and research to push for reform

Convicted killer Ronald Jeffrey Prible may seem an odd choice for carrying the banner of a jury-reform effort that would ensure greater Hispanic participation. Prible is not Hispanic, but his death-sentence appeal is the first in what is expected to be dozens of cases arguing that juries were chosen from jury pools that were unconstitutional because they did not represent a fair cross section of the community. Although Hispanic residents make up an estimated 30 percent of Harris County's eligible jurors, the jury pool of 300 people summoned for Prible's case included only 37 Hispanics, or 12 percent, according to his appeal. No Hispanics were chosen for the jury. The case is among those chosen thus far by the Houston-based law firm Vinson & Elkins to spearhead an effort to revamp what the firm considers an outdated jury system. Vinson & Elkins filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus last month in Prible's case. Prible, now 32, was convicted in 2002 of the April 1999 murders of Esteban Herrera Jr. and his fiancee, Nilda Tirado. Failure to ensure jury pools include a fair number of people from the fastest-growing minority in Houston and the state could erode confidence in the justice system, said Robert Walters, one of the Vinson & Elkins attorneys leading the project. "In the long run we will undermine the system, and we just can't afford to let that happen," he said. "How can they have confidence if people do not participate?" The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that juries must reflect the surrounding community to ensure public confidence in the criminal justice system. [more]