Opinion ID: 2569529
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Batson Objections

Text: Adams contends that the State impermissibly used its peremptory challenges to keep African-Americans off the jury. The panel of prospective jurors consisted of 39 persons, 10 of whom were African-American. One African-American was not considered by agreement of the parties. Both the defense and the State had 12 peremptory challenges during jury selection. The State used half of its 12 peremptories. The State struck six of the nine remaining African-Americans. The defense struck no African-Americans. Ultimately, there were two African-Americans on the jury and one African-American alternate. Adams objected to all six of the State's peremptory strikes as race-based strikes under Batson. The district court asked the State to respond, and the prosecutor gave her reasons for striking the six African-Americans. The district court accepted the State's reasons as racially neutral. Adams now takes issue specifically with the State's explanation of three of its six strikes. Our standard of review is abuse of discretion. State v. Harris, 259 Kan. 689, Syl. ¶ 6, 915 P.2d 758 (1996). We review the district court's findings with deference. State v. Walston, 256 Kan. 372, 382, 886 P.2d 349 (1994). Batson held that a State's privilege to strike jurors though peremptory challenges is subject to the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause. 476 U.S. at 89. We conduct a three-step test in assessing whether a peremptory challenge violates the Equal Protection Clause under Batson. For analysis of Batson's three steps, see Walston, 256 Kan. at 377. Adams claims error only in three of the African-American strikes. Thus, we discuss the facts relating to those three.