Opinion ID: 1036479
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Venire Member Demond Martin

Text: 118 Case: 12-14421 Date Filed: 08/01/2013 Page: 119 of 128 Lee contends that the state appellate court should have examined the two reasons given for striking Demond Martin, discovered that they were false, and concluded the strike was racially motivated. At trial the prosecutor had stated he struck Martin because: (1) Martin was opposed to the death penalty; and (2) he had “a bit of an arrest record.” The record supports the first reason. While Martin said that he could impose the death penalty under certain circumstances, he also told the prosecutor, “I don’t like the death penalty, I’m against it.” Like Gutridge, Martin also failed to raise his hand when the prosecutor asked the members of his voir dire panel if they felt death could be “a proper penalty given the circumstances,” and he had to be individually prodded by the prosecutor to disclose his views on the death penalty. Lee also now challenges the second reason, that Martin had a “bit of an arrest record,” as unsupported by the record. In Lee’s direct appeal, Lee made, and the state appellate court examined, a more general argument that the prosecutor’s reason for striking several black venire members (including Alice Scott and Johnnie Hall) due to their arrest records was not supported by the record. Lee I, 898 So. 2d at 816. The court observed that the prosecutor had documentation concerning the criminal histories of each of the venire members. Id. Before the parties made cause or peremptory challenges, the State provided the defense with a copy of the criminal histories of the venire members. Id. Yet, Lee’s trial counsel 119 Case: 12-14421 Date Filed: 08/01/2013 Page: 120 of 128 did not contest the facts relating to the arrest record of any venire member for whom the prosecutor cited an arrest record as a reason for the strike. The court thus concluded that Lee’s contention—that the arrest record reason was pretextual—was “not supported by the record,” and found no plain error. Id. This conclusion is not unreasonable. At no time has Lee submitted any evidence to refute the prosecutor’s statement that Martin, plus Scott and Hall, had arrest records.