Opinion ID: 2812008
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Tyrone Foote - Venire Member Number 46

Text: ¶57. Peremptory challenge S-2 was to Tyrone Foote. The State offered that its strike of Foote was based on the assistant district attorney’s prosecution of Foote’s family members. The assistant district attorney stated, “I think I’ve sent more Footes to the penitentiary out of Union County than any other name, I think. His brother was sentenced on drug charges. We’ve had Zyrone and CoCo and all amounts of Footes that we’ve sent to the penitentiary. . . . ” Additionally Foote failed to answer questioning during voir dire on whether any family 10 The accused and the victims were Caucasian. 25 member had been prosecuted, despite responding on his jury questionnaire form that his brother had been prosecuted, confirming the validity of the State’s reason. The trial court noted that Foote had family members prosecuted by the same district attorney’s office. Cox argues that the reason was only facially race-neutral, as venire member Number 13 responded on his questionnaire form that his father had once been charged with a crime. The State rebuts that there is a difference between being “charged” and being prosecuted. ¶58. Cox also directs us to Number 51, whose response on the questionnaire form revealed that a “close friend” had been charged by the district attorney with a drug offense. The State rebuts that a close friend and a brother are distinguishable. Last, Cox provides that the State accepted Number 180, whose wife had been charged with shoplifting. The State also points out that both Number 51 and Number180 “strongly favored” the death penalty, whereas Foote “generally favor[ed]” the death penalty. The State also distinguishes the accepted venire members from Foote by focusing on the fact that Foote was struck because of the prosecutor’s knowledge that he had prosecuted a number of Foote’s family members without any indication that the same was true for the other three venire members.