A prosecutor in Wharton County has accused the elected district attorney of pressuring him and others to keep black residents off juries in an effort to increase the number of criminal convictions.

Nathan Wood, the prosecutor, said he was disturbed by what he considered the casual way that his boss, District Attorney Ross Kurtz, told him and other prosecutors that allowing blacks on juries meant losing at trial, according to a transcript of a March 11 hearing before state District Judge Randy Clapp.

"I was not 'instructed' to strike black jurors so much as I was advised or encouraged to do so as a matter of trial strategy," Wood said, according to the transcript, a copy of which was obtained by the Houston Chronicle. "Whatever the true intentions behind the statements made in our office, they made me feel uncomfortable, and I shared that discomfort with a friend."

The policy would violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prosecutors cannot use race in deciding which jurors should be excluded, and it raises questions about prior cases handled in Wharton County since Kurtz took office in 2012.

To defense lawyers, the startling allegations point to a culture of circumventing the law in Kurtz's office. Kurtz denied the allegations.

"My instructions and guidance has always been and will always be that prosecutors should not take race into account in exercising the choices allowed by law on which potential jurors to strike," he said Tuesday in an email to the Chronicle.

Kurtz would not comment directly on the allegations because the defendant in the underlying case is still awaiting sentencing.

The allegations surfaced in court just after the black defendant was convicted of assault by a jury that did not include any black members.

Wood and another prosecutor had excluded three black members who had the potential to end up on the jury.

Under Texas law, jurors are not selected but rather are the first 12 members left behind after the prosecution and defense - and sometimes the judge - have scratched others out of contention.

At the time, defense attorney Mark Racer objected to the exclusion of the black potential jurors, forcing the prosecutors to give race-neutral explanations for their actions.

"This is just a win-at-all costs mentality that shouldn't be there," Racer said this week. "And clearly one of the prosecutors was uncomfortable with it."

At the time, the judge ruled that the prosecutors' jury strikes were not racially motivated, but Wood asked to explain his actions after the conviction was announced.

Not 'instructed,' per se

Wood read a statement into the court record that indicated he had told a friend that he had been instructed to make sure blacks were not on the jury, and said he believed that the friend had told the judge.

"It was not an 'I'm the boss' instruction," Wood said in court. "I used the word 'instructed' inartfully during a conversation with a friend that I expected would remain private."

He said he did not use race as a factor in the case and had never struck jurors because of race, a sentiment echoed by the lead prosecutor, Daniel LaBruyere, court records show.

Neither Wood nor LaBruyere returned calls for comment; both still work for Kurtz.

According to the transcript, however, the two lawyers had discussed the jury selection in the days leading up to trial. Wood was concerned that Kurtz would take over jury selection if Wood did not strike jurors based on race, but the prosecutors soon learned that Kurtz was too busy to step into the trial.

"Any time the subject of excluding black jurors has come up, my response has been unequivocal. Under no circumstances will I ever exercise a strike based on race," Wood said in court. He referred to the advice and encouragement as "haphazard conversations and inarticulate goings-on" within the office.

The exclusions would be at odds with Batson v. Kentucky, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1986 that held that race should not be considered in jury selection.

A defense lawyer who believes the reason for a juror strike is racial may object in what has come to be called a "Batson challenge." In a hearing before the judge, prosecutors must give race-neutral reasons for the strike, which can include anything from work history to the way a prospective juror looked at a prosecutor.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Dallas man's death penalty conviction, citing a manual used by the Dallas County DA's office instructing prosecutors on different tips and tricks for excluding minorities from juries.

In Harris County, similar advice was circulated verbally among prosecutors, said JoAnne Musick, a defense lawyer who was a prosecutor from 1998 to 2003.

"I had people tell me to go ahead and strike them and just write down race-neutral reasons," said Musick, who is the president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. "I like to believe I never actually did it, but that's the way I was told to do it."

Musick said the problem persists in Houston. She said she encountered a similar issue during jury selection in a felony case earlier this month. Her objection was denied by a judge.

"It goes on every day," she said. "Probably across the country, but I'd say it's very common all over what I call the greater Houston area - including the bordering counties."

Common practice?

Vivian King, an outspoken black defense attorney, agreed that it is a widespread problem but said she was not advised to do it when she worked as a Harris County prosecutor from 1992 to 1995.

"(Former Harris County District Attorney) Johnny Holmes told us to do what we thought we should do," she said. "I was never told or pressured to do that."

She said she was not surprised Musick, who is white, was encouraged to do it.

"They're not going to tell a black person to do that," she said.

David Kiatta, a Houston attorney who sometimes practices in Wharton County and is familiar with the case, said he is working on filing a grievance against Kurtz over jury selection.

"To continue with a mindset that there is a stereotype for a black person, or that any minority would vote a certain way, is appalling," he said. "And for somebody in law enforcement, in a position of authority with the ability to decide people's fate, to make decisions based on skin color and stereotypes is tragic."

Racer, the lawyer in the assault case that sparked the allegations, said his client's conviction may be appealed because of Wood's admissions. He said other cases where race has been an issue in jury selection may also be challenged.

"I don't know how many other cases there are that had these issues," Racer said. "But I suspect there are a few."