Opinion ID: 1107941
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: was it error for the trial court to allow the district attorney to peremptorily strike twelve black jurors without showing sufficient cause to overcome batson standards?

Text: Under this assignment of error, the appellant challenges the use of peremptory challenges to exclude black jurors under the standards enunciated in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Batson prohibits the use of peremptory challenges in a discriminatory fashion, i.e. in allowing potential black jurors to be stricken without a showing of good cause. During jury selection in the case sub judice, no objection was ever made by the appellant to the racial composition of the jury. This Court has held specifically on more than one occasion that the failure of the appellant to raise such an objection when the jury is being impanelled serves as a procedural bar on appeal. Irving v. State, 498 So.2d 305, 317-318 (Miss. 1986); Thomas v. State, 517 So.2d 1285, 1286-1288 (Miss. 1987); Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1317, 1331 (Miss. 1987). It should also be noted that Batson was decided on April 30, 1986, and the trial in this case was not held until February 27, 1987. This time lapse of almost a year between the Batson decision and the trial of this case should hopefully remove the reservations expressed by the dissent in Thomas, supra, at 1288-1295. It is the opinion of this Court that this assignment of error is procedurally barred.