Case Name: Annie Ruth BOGAN a/k/a Annie Ruth Lloyd, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee
Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 2001-01-16
Citations: 811 So. 2d 286
Docket Number: No. 1998-KA-01106-COA
Parties: Annie Ruth BOGAN a/k/a Annie Ruth Lloyd, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
Judges: McMILLIN, C.J., SOUTHWICK, P.J., BRIDGES, IRVING, LEE, PAYNE, and THOMAS, JJ., concur IRVING, J., concurs with separate written opinion joined by CHANDLER and MYERS, JJ., not participating.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 811
Pages: 286–291

Head Matter:
Annie Ruth BOGAN a/k/a Annie Ruth Lloyd, Appellant, v. STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.
No. 1998-KA-01106-COA.
Court of Appeals of Mississippi.
Jan. 16, 2001.
Jim Waide, Victor Israel Fleitas, Tupelo, Martin D. Crump, Attorneys for Appellant.
Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, Attorney for Appellee.

Opinion:
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
EN BANC.
KING, P.J.,
for the Court:
¶ 1. This cause has returned to this Court upon Bogan's motion for rehearing. That motion is granted, the prior opinion withdrawn and this opinion substituted in its stead.
¶ 2. Bogan was convicted in the Monroe County Circuit Court of aggravated assault upon a police officer. Aggrieved by that conviction, Bogan has appealed and raises four issues for this court's consideration. Those issues are:(l) whether the circuit court improperly allowed Dr. Chris Lott to testify as an expert witness in the absence of some known scientific test to determine right from wrong; (2) whether the circuit court improperly excluded the testimony that Bogan did not comprehend the difference between right and wrong, while allowing unqualified expert testimony on this subject and allowing the prosecutor to comment on the lack of lay testimony; (3) did the circuit court improperly refuse Bogan a continuance to review the transcript of the first trial; and (4) did the circuit court deny equal protection to Bogan, by allowing the prosecution to engage in racially discriminatory jury selection, in violation of Batson.
¶ 3. Because this court finds merit in Bogan's fourth issue, it reverses and remands this matter.
FACTS
¶ 4. In August 1999, Monroe County Sheriffs Department personnel, pursuant to a court order, evicted Bogan from her home. Bogan resisted the eviction and was subsequently arrested on a charge of trespass. Bogan was then placed in a patrol car for transportation to the county jail.
¶ 5. While being transported, Bogan pulled a pistol from her person and pointed it at the head of the deputy and threatened to kill him. A struggle for the gun ensued as Bogan attempted to discharge it. The gun's discharge was prevented when the deputy's thumb was placed in front of the firing pin, injuring his thumb but preventing discharge of the pistol.
ANALYSIS
I
WAS BOGAN DENIED EQUAL PROTECTION IN VIOLATION OF BATSON?
¶ 6. During the process of jury selection, the State attempted to exercise 5 of its peremptory challenges against Blacks. The trial court allowed four of these peremptory challenges. Bogan objected to the exercise of these challenges saying that they were a pretext for racially discriminatory jury selection in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69, (1986). Batson, based upon the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution, forbids the exercise of peremptory challenges in a manner which masks purposeful discrimination.
¶ 7. The trial courts of this State have the obligation to ensure that peremptory challenges are not used to mask purposeful discrimination. Lockett v. State 517 So.2d 1346 (Miss.19) Wheeler v. State, 536 So.2d 1347 (Miss.1988) Fleming v. State, 732 So.2d 172 (Miss.1999). In honoring this obligation, the trial courts of this State have been directed to articulate on the record the factual analysis of the race neutral reasons offered. Hatten v. State, 628 So.2d 294, 294 (Miss.1993) Johnson v. State, 754 So.2d 1178 (Miss.2000), Robinson v. State, 761 So.2d 209 (Miss.2000).
¶ 8. In response to the trial court's inquiry, the State gave as the explanation for its exercise of these peremptory challenges the following reasons:
(1) juror's street address indicated a high crime area and his information sheet was incomplete, (2) juror's information sheet was incomplete, which left open the possibility that his three children listed on the form were illegitimate, and would be indicative of the juror's irresponsibility, (3) juror struck because she lived in a high crime area, was unemployed, and unmarried with children, and (4) juror challenged because he lived in a high crime area and was unmarried with a child.
¶ 9. The trial court accepted these reasons and allowed the peremptory challenges. However in allowing the exercise of these four peremptory challenges, the trial court stated no reason for doing so.
¶ 10. The trial court failed to make an on the record factual determination as to the race neutral reasons offered by the State for the exercise of its peremptory challenges. The record suggests that the trial court failed in its obligation to ensure that facially neutral reasons were not a mask for discriminatory actions. Hatten, at 309. This failure is evidenced by the exchange between counsel for the Defendant, and the trial court which follows:
MR. WAIDE: Well, Your Honor, I don't — to say that a person has children and is unmarried is some relationship to what kind of juror they would be in a criminal case, I don't see how it does. I would have to take each information sheet to go through the ones to see whether there are white jurors in the same situation. I do not believe that's a racially neutral reason.
THE COURT: Counsel, that's not the test. As to the juror being challenged, the State must articulate some race neutral reason. That's all. It doesn't say it must be compared with every other challenge that they do or do not exercise. The State will be permitted to exercise that challenge. That juror will be stricken.
¶ 11. This exchange leaves no doubt that the trial court did not consider whether the reasons offered by the state were merely a pretext for discrimination. Discrimination is seldom expressed in direct terms. It is instead generally expressed insidiously. As noted previously, our trial courts have the obligation to ensure that peremptory jury challenges are not used to cloak unlawful discriminatory intent in violation of the equal protection clause. The fulfillment of this obligation requires that our trial judges engage in comparison to assure that persons similarly situated are similarly treated.
¶ 12. Because, the trial court failed to (1) provide an on the record factual determination of the reasons given by the State for the exercise of its peremptory challenges, and (2) to ensure that the reasons offered by the State for the exercise of its peremptory challenges were not a pretext for discrimination and therefore violative of the equal protection clause, we reverse and remand this case.
¶ 13. Because this case is being reversed and remanded for a new trial, this Court will not consider Bogan's other issues.
¶ 14. THE JUDGMENT OF THE MONROE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT IS REVERSED AND THIS CASE REMANDED FOR A NEW TRIAL. ALL COSTS OF THIS APPEAL ARE TAXED AGAINST MONROE COUNTY.
McMILLIN, C.J., SOUTHWICK, P.J., BRIDGES, IRVING, LEE, PAYNE, and THOMAS, JJ., concur IRVING, J., concurs with separate written opinion joined by CHANDLER and MYERS, JJ., not participating.