Hernandez v. Texas

The Murder Trial

On August 4, 1951, 24-year-old service station attendant Pedro (Pete) Hernandez shot and killed tenant farmer Joe Espinosa during a fight at Chinco Sanchez's Tavern, Sprung's Grocery, Edna, Jackson County, Texas. Within 24 hours, Hernandez was indicted by an all-White grand jury and petit jury panel for murder. On August 8, he was denied bail. During this period of time, John Herrera and James deAnda of Houston were retained as counsel for Hernandez, although Jackson County was well over an hour's trip by highway from their offices. In September, San Antonio attorneys Gustavo Garcia and Carlos Cadena joined the defense team.

On October 4, 1951, the district court refused to quash the Hernandez indictment, not unexpectedly, and deAnda sent his research materials on jury composition to Cadena, who drafted the brief, edited for Jackson County demographics. Between October 8 and 11, Hernandez was tried by an all-White jury, and at the end of the trial he was convicted of murder. On October 11, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. On June 18, 1952, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the judgment, and on October 22, that court refused a rehearing on the jury selection issue.

A variety of factors came together and persuaded the attorneys that they should take the case to the next level, the U.S. Supreme Court, although no Mexican American lawyer had ever pleaded a case before the Supreme Court. They had taken notice of the bathroom signage in the Jackson County Courthouse—the bathroom door read, “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aqui”—and knew that the government attorneys had noticed, and they vowed to include those facts at trial and in their briefs.

Supreme Court Appeal

By the end of the year 1952, the attorneys had made the collective decision to appeal the case beyond the state, and their patience and preparation were rewarded when on October 12, 1953, certiorari was granted for the case to be heard. At approximately the same time, the Supreme Court also granted cert on the well-known school desegregation cases, which had been consolidated and styled Brown v. Board of Education and which were being reargued after the death of Chief Justice Fred Vinson. Attention was focused on that set of cases, which had been carefully selected and prepared for the final assault on segregation.

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