Opinion ID: 1287539
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: denial of a fair jury

Text: I believe also that the prosecution denied Washington equal protection of law by denying him a fair jury. The State used only one peremptory challenge, and the challenge was used to disqualify the only black, male juror who had been selected from the jury pool. Washington objected, claiming that the sole reason for the exclusion was the juror's race or gender. The State argued that the juror was dismissed because he had no children, was uneducated (even though he graduated from high school and had several years of service in the army), and was a cook. However, the empaneled jury contained several members who had no children and who had no more than a high school education. [2] I have no idea why the State would want to disqualify all cooks from the jury. I find the reason given to be unbelievable. While I realize that Purkett v. Elem, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995), interpreted Batson to require only a race-neutral explanation of why a given peremptory challenge is being made, [i]f a race-neutral explanation is tendered [step 2], the trial court must then decide (step 3) whether the opponent of the strike has proved purposeful discrimination. Id. at ___-___, 115 S.Ct. at 1770-71 (citations omitted). In other words, the court must determine whether the race-neutral explanation is pretextual (as it clearly is in this case). See, e.g., Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 363, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1868, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991); U.S. v. Joe, 928 F.2d 99, 102 (4th Cir.1991); Doyle v. State, 112 Nev. 879, 921 P.2d 901 (1996). In my opinion, the majority turns a blind eye to a transparently implausible race-neutral explanation for excluding the only black, male juror. For the foregoing three reasons, I would reverse the conviction and remand to the trial court for a new trial.