Opinion ID: 1822334
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: application of the clearly erroneous standard to the justification offered

Text: ¶ 73. As noted above, this case concerns the third step of the Batson test. ¶ 74. Applying the clearly erroneous standard of Hernandez, we uphold the decision of the court of appeals that no Batson violation occurred. The prosecutor gave credible, race-neutral, reasons upon questioning by the court for her peremptory challenges. In this case the record shows that the prosecutor had done research about Bell, which stands in stark contrast to the prosecutor in Walker who struck the only African-American without knowing anything about the juror. Walker, 154 Wis. 2d 158. ¶ 75. In Walker, the defendant, an African-American, was charged with armed robbery. The jury selection consisted of twenty possible jurors and only one was an African-American. During the voir dire examination of potential jurors, the record in Walker showed that African-American venireperson did not answer in a way that would suggest a disqualifying attitude to any general questions directed at the pool of jurors by the judge or by the lawyers, nor did the court or counsel ask the [African-American] venireperson any specific questions. Walker, 154 Wis. 2d at 164. In seating a twelve-person jury the prosecutor and defense counsel were each allowed to use peremptory challenges to eliminate four of the venirepersons from the pool. The prosecutor in Walker used his third peremptory challenge to eliminate the only African-American venireperson. Id. On review this court found that the record in Walker indicated that every prosecution witness was white while all alibi witnesses for the defense were [African-American]. Id. at 178. Moreover, when asked his reason for the strike, the prosecutor admitted that he struck the African-American venireperson because he knew nothing about him. Id. Upon an independent review of the record, this court found the two reasons provided by the prosecutor for using a peremptory challenge to strike the only African-American venireperson unacceptable. This court said: First, the prosecutor denied that he had a discriminatory motive. The Court in Batson declared that the mere denial of discriminatory intent is not sufficient to rebut an inference of purposeful discrimination. Batson, 476 U.S. at 98. Second, the prosecutor explained that, going into the jury selection process for Walker's trial, he only had information about jurors with juror numbers between 841 and 906. The black venireperson had a juror number of 944. The prosecutor thus stated that he struck the black venireperson because he had no information about him. This explanation is unacceptable because it is not clear and reasonably specific. Moreover, this explanation appears to be pretextual. Id. at 178. Accordingly, this court held that the facts in Walker raise[ed] an inference of purposeful discrimination on behalf of the prosecutor. Id. ¶ 76. Thus, unlike the situation in Walker, Bell's lack of response to several questions, in combination with Bollendorf's information on Bell, gave support to Bollendorf's explanation for her peremptory strike of Bell. As noted previously, the U.S. Supreme Court recently addressed the matter of credibility of a prosecutor's reasons for his or her use of a peremptory strike in Miller-El v. Cockrell and said: Credibility can be measured by, among other factors, the prosecutor's demeanor; by how reasonable, or how improbable, the explanations are; and by whether the proffered rationale has some basis in accepted trial strategy. Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 123 S.Ct. 1029 (2003). The Court held that a state court need not make detailed findings addressing all the evidence before it. Id. ¶ 77. Although it may be argued that Judge Dahlberg did not set forth enough reasons for his decision to allow the State's strike to stand, such an argument is weakened by the holding in Miller-El, where the Court held that it was not necessary to make detailed findings so long as the arguments were adequately considered. Id. ¶ 78. Determining discriminatory intent under Batson simply requires the consideration of the totality of the relevant facts. Hernandez, 500 U.S. at 363; see also Walker, 154 Wis. 2d at 173-74, 179. ¶ 79. Turning to the facts of this case, it is undisputed that the only African-American juror was struck from the venire, and the defendant is African-American. However, when questioned by the circuit court judge, the State offered several race-neutral reasons for exercising her peremptory challenge against Bell.
¶ 80. When questioned why she struck Bell, Bollendorf explained that the prosecutor's office, as well as the federal prosecuting attorney's office, had prosecuted a number of Bells who live in Beloit. According to Bollendorf, Bell is a well-known criminal name in Beloit. Next, the State noted Bell's address is in a high crime area in Beloit and that the State obtained police reports evidencing police contacts at that address. These contacts ranged from civil processes to stolen vehicles. The State argued that the Bell in the venire may be related to the people at that address and that there were a number of police contacts at Bell's address, yet Bell did not answer the State's question regarding contact with the district attorney's office or with law enforcement officers. Furthermore, he did not mention anything about relatives who may have had contacts, even though, in Exhibit 1, Bells are listed at his address. [16, 17] ¶ 81. The Federal Court for the Western District of Wisconsin held in Davidson v. Gengler, 852 F.Supp. 782, 788 (W.D. Wis. 1994) that a prosecutor's knowledge that a challenged juror possessed the same name as known criminals in the area was a race-neutral explanation. Similarly, striking an African-American juror because of a familial relationship to individuals involved in the criminal justice system is a neutral reason to strike a juror. Id. ¶ 82. In reaching its decision the Gengler court relied on a number of cases. First, the court relied on United States v. Johnson, 941 F.2d 1102 (10th Cir. 1991), which held that striking a potential juror, who was African-American, because his brother was once convicted of a crime and because his family history suggested anti-government bias, were race-neutral reasons for a peremptory strike. Id. at 1109. Prior family involvement with drug offenses is a race-neutral basis to strike such a potential juror. United States v. Bennett, 928 F.2d 1548, 1551 (11th Cir. 1991) superseded by statute as stated in United States v. Smith, 127 F.3d 1388, (11th Cir. 1997). See also United States v. Hughes, 911 F.2d 113, 114 (8th Cir. 1990) (incarceration of nephew of African-American potential juror is a race-neutral reason for a strike). [18] ¶ 83. Additionally, when a potential juror has the same last name as someone previously convicted by the prosecutor, courts have accepted it as a race-neutral reason for a peremptory strike. Terrazas-Carrasco, 861 F.2d at 94-95 n.1. ¶ 84. In Terrazas-Carrasco the court of appeals held that the district court was not clearly erroneous in determining that a prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to exclude Hispanic veniremen from the jury did not violate defendant's equal protection rights. With respect to the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to exclude the Hispanic veniremen, the Fifth Circuit said: We must accept the [inquiring] judge's credibility choice with respect to the prosecutor's reasons. Valid reasons for exclusion may include intuitive assumptions upon confronting a venireman. In Lance, we upheld such factors as eye contact, demeanor, age, marital status, and length of residence in the community as valid grounds for peremptory challenge. In this case, the reasons articulated are of the same variety. Id. at 94-95 (citing United States v. Lance, 853 F.2d 1177, 1181 (5th Cir. 1988)). In footnote one of Terrazas-Carrasco the court stated that the valid, race-neutral reasons articulated for the peremptory strike in that case include having the same last name as someone previously convicted by the prosecutor; age; eye contact; and body language. Id. at 95 n.1 (emphasis added). [19] ¶ 85. Along with names, addresses may provide an acceptable race-neutral justification for a peremptory strike. As noted by the State in its brief, case law is quite clear that location of a venireperson's residence provides a race-neutral reason for a peremptory strike when a residential location has some relationship to the facts of the case. (Resp't Br. at 22 n.3). For example, in United States v. Briscoe , the court upheld a peremptory strike where prosecutor's explanation went well beyond a cursory statement that Mr. Jeffries resided on the west side of Chicago. United States v. Briscoe, 896 F.2d 1476, 1488 (7th Cir. 1990). However, courts have recognized that allowing the exclusion of African-American venirepersons simply because they live or work in an area frequented by gangs has an enormous potential to disproportionately exclude black jurors in most cases involving black gang members. Williams v. Chrans, 957 F.2d 487, 489-90 (7th Cir. 1992). With respect to the issue of resident location, the Ninth Circuit said: [w]hat matters is not whether but how [a] residence is used. United States v. Bishop, 959 F.2d 820, 826 (9th Cir. 1992). ¶ 86. In support of the proffered race-neutral reasons for the peremptory strike the State introduced Exhibit 1 during the Batson hearing. Exhibit 1 listed several law enforcement contacts at the address that Bell had listed in his juror questionnaire. One of those contacts involved a complaint about a stolen vehicle and parties who were named Bell. Accordingly, Exhibit 1, like the case in Briscoe, explained the nature and previous use of the residence, which went beyond a cursory statement that Bell simply lived in a high crime area. Id.
[20] ¶ 87. Furthermore, the State argued that Exhibit 1, coupled with Bell's lack of response, indicated that he may not respond forthrightly to further voir dire questions directed to him. Bell's failure to disclose during voir dire any police contacts at his residence is a plainly race-neutral justification for striking him. See Coulter v. Gilmore, 155 F.3d 912, 919-20 (7th Cir. 1998) (calling the prosecutions striking of two venirepersons because they failed to disclose that they had been previously charged with crimes legitimate and non-discriminatory). See also Baldwin v. State, 732 So.2d 236, 243 (Miss. 1999) (prosecutor's explanation that venirepersons lived in high drug trafficking areas and had family members who had been convicted of crimes found to be race-neutral).
[21] ¶ 88. The defense maintains that Bollendorf could have asked Bell individual questions on voir dire. Bollendorf stated that she did not want to appear to single Bell out. While the lack of personalized voir dire of a juror may inhibit a judge's evaluation of the attorney's credibility in peremptory challenge explanations, inhibiting is different than eliminating the opportunity to determine credibility altogether. ¶ 89. Questioning or failing to question a potential juror presents a problematic tautology. Failing to examine a juror, or conversely singling out a juror, can be equally argued to weigh against a race neutral justification for a peremptory strike. In Gengler the court held that a prosecutor was allowed to rely on information other than individual voir dire to provide a basis for his race neutral explanation. Gengler, 852 F. Supp. at 789. According to Gengler individual follow-up questions on voir dire are not required in order to strike a potential juror. In this case the refusal to conduct individualized voir dire of Bell may be an isolated factor arguably evidencing discriminatory intent. However, this factor alone is not conclusive of discrimination during jury selection. In light of the totality of the circumstances, the numerous race-neutral reasons proffered by the State outweigh any alleged discriminatory intent resulting from the failure to question Bell further.
[22] ¶ 90. The State also explained that Bell's juror card listed his employment as varies, which goes to his responsibility as a juror. The Seventh Circuit has held that unemployment may provide a sufficiently race-neutral explanation for a strike. United States v. Lewis, 117 F.3d 980, 983 (7th Cir. 1997). In reaching that decision the court in Lewis relied on cases which recognize unstable employment, or unemployment status, as sufficient race-neutral explanations for a peremptory strike. Id. (citing United States v. Hunter, 86 F.3d 679, 683 (7th Cir. 1996), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 985, 117 S.Ct. 443, 136 L.Ed.2d 339 (1996) and United States v. Hughes, 970 F.2d 227, 230-31, (7th Cir. 1992)). See also United States v. Jackson, 914 F.2d 1050, 1052-53 (8th Cir. 1990); State v. Hernandez, 170 Ariz. 301, at 305, 823 P.2d 1309 (1991).
[23] ¶ 91. It is clear from the record that the evidence in Exhibit 1, as well as clear case law, supported Bollendorf's explanations for her peremptory strike. Bollendorf relied on a detailed police report of contacts at Bell's address, along with her personal knowledge of prosecutions against other persons named Bell, and her observations of Bell and his answers during voir dire. Based on the race-neutral reasons offered by Bollendorf for her peremptory strike, we find that Lamon did not meet the burden of proof required to show that the State's reasons were not race-neutral. Accordingly, we affirm the court of appeals' decision and hold that the decision of circuit court in allowing the strike to stand was not clearly erroneous. As a result, we find no error and need not engage a harmless error analysis.