Opinion ID: 1711117
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Whether Counsel was Ineffective for Failing to Offer Rebuttal on Batson Objection

Text: ¶ 12. At trial, Brown's lawyers objected to the State's use of six peremptory challenges against black members of the venire panel. The State, in response, offered race-neutral reasons for the use of these strikes, and the trial court overruled the objections. Brown claims that trial counsels' performance was deficient in failing to offer rebuttal argument and that this omission resulted in the denial of his Batson objections. Brown does not articulate just what argument should have been offered in rebuttal but only speculates that there might have been some helpful information in the jurors' questionnaires. Brown also argues that the reasons offered by the State were the hearsay statements of police and that his attorneys should have challenged those statements. ¶ 13. This Court has previously held that there is no ineffective assistance claim even if counsel fails to raise the Batson issue at all if it appears from the record that the peremptory challenges were raceneutral. Conner v. State, 684 So.2d 608, 612-13 (Miss.1996). In the present case, trial counsel did raise the objection, but the State successfully supported its use of the peremptory jury strikes. A review of the record shows that the State gave legitimate race-neutral reasons for each of the six challenges. As for the prosecution's reliance on information supplied by the police, this Court has previously held We decline to set any limits on the prosecutor's use of any legitimate informational source heretofore or hereafter available as to jurors. Furthermore, the prosecutor does not have to question a juror in open court about such information before using it as a racially neutral ground to make a peremptory strike, as long as the source of the information and the practice itself are not racially discriminatory. Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1346, 1352 (Miss.1987). The State's reliance on police information was not improper, and trial counsel cannot be faulted for failing to further contest a race-neutral explanation for a peremptory strike. Further, Brown makes no showing that the outcome of his trial would have been different had his Batson objections been sustained. This issue is without merit.