Opinion ID: 3156494
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State Trial Court

Text: At Shirley’s trial, a 60-person venire was empaneled and sworn. Of that number, five veniremembers were black. (Shirley, too, is black.) Of those five, all but one were removed from the venire – the remaining one, who was among the twelve originally summoned to the box, was seated on the jury. First, J.H. was dismissed by the court for cause, due to illness. Next, L.L. was peremptorily struck by the state. Then, K.A. was dismissed for cause on the parties’ joint motion, because she had a brother with a criminal record and said that she would have trouble sitting in judgment of another person. Finally, the state used another peremptory 6 SHIRLEY V. YATES strike to dismiss R.O.1 After this strike, Shirley made a Batson motion, claiming that the peremptory strikes of L.L. and R.O. were racially discriminatory. The motion was denied, with the trial judge stating that Shirley had failed to make out a prima facie case: [L.L.] had a misdemeanor conviction in her background, related to fraud, which may have reflected, and in fact, did reflect on her moral turpitude. [R.O.] ostensibly appeared to be an acceptable juror. She was young, although she did express an interest in being on the panel. But except for [R.O.]’s possible improper excusal, I don’t see any pattern of exercise of improper peremptory challenges by the People. So I find there is no prima facie case or demonstration of an improper exercise of excusal of peremptory challenges against African Americans, especially in light of the fact that we have one original juror, [], still on the jury, or at least potential jury, who is one 1 The prosecutor was afforded 20 peremptory strikes, of which he used only 10. By the time Shirley made his Batson motion, the prosecutor had exercised nine strikes, to dismiss L.L., R.O., and seven other veniremembers (whose race is not apparent from the record, but whose dismissals were not challenged). The prosecutor subsequently used one additional strike. SHIRLEY V. YATES 7 of the original 12 who were summoned in the jury box, who is still present.