I'm sorry, that courthouse just won't do

Whether San Francisco attorney Stuart Hanlon is stretching the good faith of the courts or just earning his keep as an advocate is hard to tell after reading his latest change-of-venue motion, the second he’s filed in the murder trial of Renato Hughes. Though Hanlon previously won a motion to nix Lake County as the trial venue, then had the case sent to Contra Costa, the county of his preference, Hanlon now wants to take the trial a half-hour down the freeway from Martinez to Richmond.

Hanlon first succeeded in getting the trial out of Lake County, the site of the alleged crime, by arguing that the mostly-white jury pool wouldn’t be fair to Hughes, who is black. Hughes has been charged with murder under the provocative act doctrine: Prosecutors allege Hughes, during a 2005 home invasion, provoked the homeowner into murdering Hughes’ two accomplices and bears the guilt for their deaths. Hanlon got his second wish when the county’s presiding judge picked Contra Costa County for the new venue –- estimates from the 2006 U.S. Census say the county is 9.5 percent black, compared with 2.3 percent of Lake County.

Now, Hanlon wants the trial relocated from the Martinez courthouse, where felony cases are heard, to Richmond. In the alternative, Hanlon argued in a motion filed this week, he wants the jury panel “drawn by summoning double the number of individuals living in the former ‘Bay District’ and ‘Delta District’ currently known as the ‘West’ and ‘East’ Counties,” under the assumption those areas have a larger black population. Hanlon wrote in the motion that he heard from other Contra Costa County attorneys that jury venires in Martinez don’t represent African-Americans well.

Jon Hopkins, the Lake County DA who’s still on the case, argued in his opposition that Contra Costa trial courts have repeatedly denied similar motions and that Hanlon’s request “raises issues of discrimination on the basis of race.” Hopkins, who has previously expressed concern that Hanlon has a hand in inciting media coverage and protests for his cases, also wrote that the superior court must keep the trial in Martinez to maintain security.

If Hanlon can convince the courts not only to grant the county but the specific courthouse of his preference, then we say hats off.

—  Evan Hill