Opinion ID: 1439532
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Venireperson C.W.

Text: The state offered several race-neutral reasons for striking C.W.: (1) She was visibly distracted during voir dire and was distracting other venirepersons by not taking the voir dire process seriously; (2) her cell phone was ringing throughout the process; and (3) she maintained that it would be an unreasonable hardship to her employer to be without her service for the duration of the trial. On that last point, she had explained that she did not want to be on the jury because she needed her to fulfill her duties as an area manager. These are, of course, race neutral reasons for striking C.W. According to the majority, however, venireperson S.R. was similarly situated but not stricken. The record does not bear out that conclusion. S.R. maintained that she did not want to be absent from work when her employer was going through an audit, but the trial court determined that the audit was not to take place until well after the trial was over. C.W. may well have been rightfully concerned about her employer, but S.R. should have had no concern about hers. Furthermore, unlike the situation with C.W., there was no complaint that S.R. was distracted and that her cell-phone was ringing during the proceedings.