Opinion ID: 1725949
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: whether the trial court erred in permitting the prosecution to rely on third-party information as a reason for striking jurors.

Text: ¶ 20. Next, Thorson alleges that the trial court erred in allowing Grissom to rely on information supplied by a third-party as a reason for striking a juror. Thorson is referring to the fact that Grissom testified that one of the reasons he struck Ella Carr was because a deputy informed him that she had some family members who had had entanglements with the law. ¶ 21. Thorson cites several cases from Georgia and South Carolina to support his assertion that when a prosecutor relies on information or advice from a third party during jury selection, he must prove that the third person's reasons were not motivated by race in order to survive a Batson challenge. Lewis v. State, 262 Ga. 679, 424 S.E.2d 626, 628 (1993); Congdon v. State, 262 Ga. 683, 424 S.E.2d 630 (1993); Covin v. State, 215 Ga.App. 3, 449 S.E.2d 550 (1994); State v. Adams, 307 S.C. 368, 415 S.E.2d 402 (1992). The cases which Thorson cites all involve situations in which the prosecutor stated that his race-neutral reason was that some third person had asked him to strike the juror. For example, in Lewis the prosecutor stated that he struck two black jurors because the victim's wife, who was also black, requested that he strike them. Lewis, 424 S.E.2d at 627-28. The Lewis Court held that in order for reliance on a third person to survive a Batson challenge, the State must set forth a racially-neutral, case-related reason underlying the third person's decision. Id. at 628. ¶ 22. The case sub judice is distinguishable from the cases cited by Thorson because in this case Grissom did provide a racially neutral reason that the deputy relied upon. Grissom testified that the deputy's reason for suggesting that Ella Carr would not be a good juror was that she had family members who had had entanglements with the law. A venire person being related to a person who has had entanglements with the law is a sufficient race-neutral reason. Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1346, 1351 (Miss.1987). Therefore, Grissom's reason for striking Carr survives a Batson challenge. ¶ 23. Further, in Collins v. State , we held that it was of no consequence that the State's information obtained from law enforcement officers that a particular venire person was involved in criminal activity was not in the record. Collins v. State, 691 So.2d 918, 926-27 (Miss.1997). It should be emphasized that a trial court's determination of whether or not a reason is race-neutral largely depends on the credibility of the prosecutor. Lockett, 517 So.2d at 1352. We have not set any limits on the prosecutor using legitimate informational sources to obtain facts about prospective jurors. Collins, 691 So.2d at 927 n. 4 ( citing Lockett, 517 So.2d at 1352). Thus, if a prosecutor in good faith offers a race-neutral reason supplied to him by a third person, then that reason should overcome a Batson challenge. ¶ 24. In the present case, the deputy was a legitimate informational source available to provide the prosecutor information about prospective jurors. Additionally, the reason the deputy gave Grissom regarding Ella Carr was a race-neutral reason. Therefore, the trial court did not err in allowing the prosecutor to use a reason based on the deputy's information as a valid, race-neutral reason to strike Ella Carr.