Opinion ID: 547646
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Equal Protection Limits on Criminal Defendants' Peremptory Challenges

Text: 24 Our conclusion that equal protection principles prohibit gender-based peremptory challenges of venirepersons clearly applies to prosecutors. Batson, 476 U.S. at 89, 106 S.Ct. at 1719. Batson, however, explicitly left open the question whether equal protection principles limit a criminal defendant's peremptory challenges. Id. at 89 n. 12, 106 S.Ct. at 1719. We hold that because the evils of discriminatory peremptory challenges result from the misuse of peremptory challenges, regardless of which party exercises the challenges, the fifth amendment similarly limits a federal criminal defendant's peremptory challenges. 25 Whether the prosecutor or the defendant exercises the challenges, the excluded venirepersons are harmed because discriminatory challenges are based on group membership whereas juror competence depends upon an individual's qualifications. See supra at 1422. And regardless of the source of the challenges, public confidence in the judicial system's fairness is undermined by discriminatory challenges. See supra at 1423. Thus, public respect for our criminal justice system and the rule of law will be strengthened if we ensure that no citizen is disqualified from jury service because of his membership in a constitutionally cognizable group such as race or gender. 9 26 De Gross argues, however, that even if Batson's rationale logically applies to a criminal defendant's peremptory challenges, such conduct is not fairly attributable to the state, and therefore, the constitution's guarantee of equal protection does not limit it. We are convinced, however, that a criminal defendant's peremptory challenge is state action. First, the deprivation of the venireperson's equal rights is caused by the defendant's exercise of a right created by the State, the right to make peremptory challenges. See 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1870 (1988); Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 937, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 2753, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982). 27 Second, comparison to state action cases reveals that a criminal defendant who exercises peremptory challenges can fairly be said to be a state actor because she makes use of state procedures with the overt, significant assistance of state officials. Tulsa Professional Collection Servs. v. Pope, 485 U.S. 478, 486, 108 S.Ct. 1340, 1345, 99 L.Ed.2d 565 (1988). For example, in Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1, 68 S.Ct. 836, 92 L.Ed. 1161 (1948), a state court enforced a racially restrictive covenant signed by the seller of a house against the black buyers of the house. The Supreme Court found state action when the seller ceased voluntary adherence to the discriminatory covenant and the state court intervened to enforce it at the request of third parties. Id. at 19, 68 S.Ct. at 845. Similarly, state action occurs when a trial judge enforces a party's discriminatory peremptory challenge by excusing the challenged venireperson. 28 In Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715, 81 S.Ct. 856, 6 L.Ed.2d 45 (1961), a black man challenged a restaurant's refusal to serve him as a violation of the fourteenth amendment. The restaurant leased its space, which was located in a publicly owned parking building operated in the public interest, directly from a state agency. The Court found that by allowing the restaurant to discriminate on state property, the state had effectively abdicated its duty not to discriminate. Id. at 723-25, 81 S.Ct. at 860-62. Here, peremptory challenges are exercised in a public federal building operated in the public interest. And if the trial judge were to accept a peremptory challenge without considering whether the challenge was exercised with discriminatory intent, the trial judge would effectively be abdicating his duty not to discriminate. 29 Pursuant to a state's statutory scheme, the defendant in Lugar filed an ex parte petition for a prejudgment writ of attachment of plaintiff's property in state court. 457 U.S. at 941, 102 S.Ct. at 2755. The court clerk issued the writ and the county sheriff executed it. The Supreme Court found the defendant's joint participation with state officials in the seizure of the disputed property sufficient to characterize the defendant as a state actor for purposes of the fourteenth amendment. Id. Likewise, the federal government also supplies the means for a criminal defendant to deprive venirepersons of their equal rights. The federal government summons citizens for jury service, see 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1861-1869 (1988), and compels them to serve as jurors under threat of criminal prosecution, see id. at Sec. 1864(b). The citizens must appear at the federal courthouse. Once there, they are assembled and instructed by federal court officials. Then, during the course of a federal judicial proceeding, and with the assistance of the trial judge, parties invoke judicial procedures which have the potential to deprive venirepersons of their constitutional rights. 30 Finally, in Pope, a state court denied a hospital's application for payment of a decedent's medical expenses based on the time bar of the state's nonclaim statue. 485 U.S. at 487, 108 S.Ct. at 1346. The statute's time bar ran two months after the court, in probate proceedings, appointed an administrator who then published notice to creditors of the estate and filed copies with the court. The Court found state action in the probate court's intimate involvement in the administrator's denial of the hospital's application. Id. Like the nonclaim statute in Pope, peremptory challenges are not self-executing. Like the administrator in Pope, a party seeking to exercise discriminatory peremptory challenges must necessarily rely upon the court to call citizens to serve as jurors, to begin the voir dire in a judicial proceeding, and to excuse challenged venirepersons. 31 Hence, we conclude that the constitution limits a criminal defendant's peremptory challenges because the defendant's action in striking venirepersons is fairly attributable to the state. 32