Opinion ID: 1968461
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Batson Ground

Text: The trial court also granted a new trial because it perceived that it had failed to address adequately Kaiser's Batson challenge. A new trial may be granted where `the trial was unfair, or there was a prejudicial legal error in the proceedings.' Lyons, supra, 667 A.2d at 324 (citing Bell v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 483 A.2d 324, 327 (D.C. 1984)). The Durphys contend that Kaiser failed to meet its burden on their Batson challenge, and therefore, the trial court abused its discretion in granting a new trial based upon its misapprehension that it had failed to address adequately the Batson claim. We are hampered in any meaningful review because Kaiser's Batson challenge came after the court had excused the venire, and therefore their exact racial make-up cannot be determined from the record. See Nelson v. United States, 601 A.2d 582, 590 (D.C. 1991) (challenge on appeal rejected where the record was inadequate to establish the racial make-up of the venire or the jury actually selected). When Kaiser raised the issue, neither the court nor the two attorneys appearing for the Durphys were able to recall the racial make-up of the venire. Indeed, the trial court stated when Kaiser made the challenge that it could not fully address the issue for that very reason and that neither the court nor opposing counsel were in a position to verify Kaiser's claim. Only counsel for Kaiser seemed to have noted the racial composition of the venire. The unfairness in the situation at that point was against the Durphys because of the untimeliness of Kaiser's challenge. Batson claims must be raised seasonably. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. v. Henkel, 689 A.2d 1224, 1227 (D.C.1997) (citing Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986)). Although the precise stage at which such challenges must be made was not determined in Batson, subsequent cases in this court and elsewhere reflect that such objections must be raised, generally, in time to allow meaningful and effective inquiry into the matter. Owens-Corning, 689 A.2d at 1227. In Owens-Corning, this court held that a party's failure to object until after the jury was sworn and opening statements made waived the Batson claim. Id. at 1227-28. Reasons of fairness and practicality dictate the court's insistence on timeliness for such claims. The party challenged will be hampered in his defense in having to reconstruct the array of the panel after the venire members have been released. Id. The court's ability to make an informed judgment about the claim or to take corrective action to remedy the situation is impeded when the challenge is asserted only after the venire panel has been excused. Id. At that point, neither the court nor opposing counsel may be able to remember specifically who was challenged, and the court cannot then re-seat any jurors who were stricken for improper reasons. Id. In this case, Kaiser waited until the venire had been released and the jury was informed that it was the panel which would hear the case to raise its Batson claim. Although counsel for Kaiser indicated that this was his first opportunity to make the challenge, the record reflects otherwise. Both sides exercised their strikes at the bench after which the trial court stated that it would seat the first nine jurors remaining in the box. Kaiser could have, but did not raise any objection before the bench conference concluded, and the court finally seated the jury. Still Kaiser raised no objection, and the court excused the venire. Only after the venire was dismissed and the jury was seated and excused for lunch did Kaiser raise its Batson claim. Recognizing the impediments to its fair consideration of the claim at that point, the trial court enumerated the difficulties presented by the belated challenge. In that connection, the trial court stated: You know, you're handicapping all of us by raising it after the jury panel is gone; they're out of the courtroom; none of us are in a position to sit here and verify the claim ... it doesn't give us the opportunity to look at the list and just evaluate the overall argument; compare it with the people sitting out in the courtroom. That's number one. Number two, it also deprives us entirely of the opportunity to try to repair it, if something needs to be repaired. So, you're handicapping me and I think the other side in addressing the issue, by presenting it in the fashion that you did; and secondly, having spent the morning trying to put a jury in the box and letting it go down this way  frankly it's frustrating not to be able to address it adequately, because of the timing and the fashion in which you made your point. These are some of the same considerations which guided this court's decision in Owens-Corning, 689 A.2d at 1228. We held in Owens-Corning that a Batson challenge must be made before the jury is sworn. Owens-Corning, supra, 689 A.2d at 1228. Some of the circuits have gone further and held that a Batson objection must be made before the venire is dismissed and the trial commences. See, e.g., United States v. Parham, 16 F.3d 844, 847 (8th Cir.1994); United States v. Maseratti, 1 F.3d 330, 335 (5th Cir.1993); United States v. Romero-Reyna, 867 F.2d 834, 837 (5th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1084, 110 S.Ct. 1818, 108 L.Ed.2d 948 (1990); see also Owens-Corning, 689 A.2d at 1228 (stating that these decisions make eminent sense). We find these authorities persuasive in light of the reasons underlying the need for timely challenges in this area. We hold that where the record is clear, as it is here, that a challenge after dismissal of the venire prevents meaningful inquiry into the claim, impedes the defense to the motion, and forecloses corrective action by the trial court, the claim is properly rejected as untimely. In spite of its inability to explore adequately the Batson claim, the trial court attempted the inquiry. Without finding that Kaiser had made a prima facie showing, the court elicited the Durphys' race-neutral explanations for the strikes. [6] In spite of the court's efforts to obtain from Kaiser any comparisons with other jurors or other circumstances which would indicate that the explanations were pretextual, Kaiser offered none at the Batson hearing. Kaiser waited until after the verdict to attempt to impeach it with a belated rationale in support of its claim that the Durphys' explanations, offered prior to trial, were pretextual. See Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Buckmon, 652 A.2d 597, 603 (D.C.1994) (citing B.J.P. v. R.W.P., 637 A.2d 74, 79 (D.C.1994) (argument may not be kept in litigant's hip pocket, to be produced only in the event that [the litigant] loses)). [7] Kaiser simply did not adequately preserve the issues it sought to raise in its post-trial motion. See id. In granting Kaiser's motion for new trial based on its post-trial Batson claim, the trial court concluded that it had not been rigorous enough in its scrutiny of the Durphys' peremptory strikes. Its failure to take that step in light of Kaiser's apparent abandonment of its effort to meet its burden under Batson and Purkett, supra, was not error. In any event, given the failure of Kaiser to make a timely challenge which would have allowed for the development of the record at trial, we are not persuaded that any error of law or interest of fairness warrants a new trial in this case. In addition to the problems of timeliness, Kaiser never requested any relief at trial. Kaiser never asked that the court impanel a new jury, that the court seat any jurors who were excluded improperly or that the court exclude any persons who were improperly seated. Kaiser's actions simply were not sufficient to preserve the Batson issue. See Buckmon, supra, 652 A.2d at 603. Because Kaiser did not adequately preserve the Batson issue, we do not reach the merits of its claims. For the foregoing reasons, the orders of the trial court entering judgment for Kaiser as a matter of law or alternatively granting a new trial are reversed, and the case is remanded for reinstatement of the jury's verdict in favor of the Durphys and further proceedings consistent with this opinion. [8] Reversed and remanded.