Hernandez v. Texas
Pete Hernandez, a Mexican-American agricultural worker, was convicted for the 1950 murder of Joe Espinosa. Hernandez's pro bono legal team, including Gustavo C. García, wanted to challenge what they knew was "the systematic exclusion of persons of Mexican origin" from all types of jury duty in at least seventy counties in Texas. His defense lawyers argued that persons of Mexican descent had not been allowed to serve on juries even though numerous Mexican Americans were citizens and had qualified for jury duty in Jackson County. Even though 14 percent of the county was Hispanic, none had served on juries for at least the last 25 years. This meant Hernandez had been deprived of his Fourteenth Amendment rights. Hernandez and his lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court of Texas, then to the United States Supreme Court through a writ of certiorari.