Opinion ID: 1730571
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Lower Court's Treatment of Defendant's Batson Challenge

Text: The basis of the defendant's Batson challenge was that the prosecution had utilized eleven (11) of its arsenal of twelve (12) peremptory strikes to strike black prospective jurors from the panel. The defendant, noting that the jury finally selected was composed of eight (8) white and four (4) black jurors, alleged that the prosecutor had intentionally struck these black prospective jurors based solely upon their race, perhaps fearing that these jurors would be more sympathetic to the defendant, who is also black. The defendant argued that this was exactly the sort of practice forbidden by the Supreme Court's reading of the equal protection clause in Batson: Just as the Equal Protection Clause forbids the States to exclude black persons from the venire on the assumption that blacks as a group are unqualified to serve as jurors, so it forbids the States to strike black veniremen on the assumption that they will be biased in a particular case simply because the defendant is black. The core guarantee of equal protection, ensuring citizens that their State will not discriminate on account of race, would be meaningless were we to approve the exclusion of jurors on the basis of such assumptions, which arise solely from the juror's race. Batson, supra, 476 U.S. at 97-98, 106 S.Ct. at 1723 ( citation omitted ). In response to the defendant's challenge, the trial court immediately asked the prosecutor to explain his reasons for striking the eleven (11) black prospective jurors. The prosecutor, after taking a moment to consult his notes, proffered reasons to the trial judge for his exercise of peremptory strikes. The trial judge found those explanations acceptable race-neutral reasons for striking the black prospective jurors, that the exercise of the peremptory strikes by the prosecutor were not racially motivated, and accordingly overruled the defendant's objection. The defendant raised the Batson issue in the court of appeal; however, he only challenged the reasons given by the prosecutor for the exercise of six (6) of his peremptory strikes. The court of appeal deferred to the trial court's ruling as to four (4) of the peremptory strikes, but found that the prosecutor had acted out of improper discriminatory motive in striking two of the black prospective jurors. Based upon our review of the record, we affirm the appellate court's ruling regarding the four (4) peremptory strikes which it found to have been properly exercised for the reasons stated in the court of appeal's decision. We now turn to an examination of the facts surrounding the voir dire of the two prospective jurors who were the focus of the court of appeal's judgment sustaining the defendant's Batson challenge, Lisa Devezin (Juror No. 110) and Alfred Price (Juror No. 273).