Opinion ID: 78318
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Lemuel Jones

Text: We discussed the most troubling aspect of the strike of Lemuel Jones above. See supra. As we described before, we can think of no other explanation for the statement we did not want to leave him individually than that the State did not want to leave Lemuel Jones on the jury as the sole black juror. Our conviction that Jones was struck based on his race is strengthened by the fact that the Court of Criminal Appeals found, and we agree, that the other two reasons given by the prosecution for striking Jones were invalid and somewhat weak respectively. McGahee, 554 So.2d at 462. Further, as we mentioned above, the State has provided no alternative explanation of the statement, although McGahee challenged it on direct appeal and to this Court. Indeed, we believe that the State can offer no other explanation.