Two years after his conviction, Paul Flores filed an appellate brief for his trial on the 1996 murder of Kristin Smart.
Flores’s appeal argued that he was not allowed a fair trial, alleging that one of the trial’s jurors showed signs of bias, and that the court should not have allowed two women to testify that Flores raped them.
Flores’s defense attempted to remove juror number 273 in the trial multiple times, claiming they showed signs of bias. The response to Flores’s claim acknowledges that 273 had become anxious during the trial, and even had a “dramatic emotional outburst” when prosecutors shared evidence of human remains in the soil underneath the home of Paul Flores’ father. The attorney general’s office says that juror 273’s behavior was not enough to warrant them being removed for bias, based on precedent set by previous cases.
Flores’s appeal also said two women claiming he raped them in witness testimony should not apply to his case. However, the attorney general said Flores was being charged with murder in the commission of rape or attempted rape, and therefore the evidence can be admitted.
Prosecutors rejecting Flores’s claim concluded that “Flores was entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect one.”
