Opinion ID: 2361073
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the racially neutral justifications

Text: The statistical evidence which I have described above is persuasive and, in my view, sufficient to establish a prima facie case. See Tursio, supra, 634 A.2d at 1210-11; cf. United States v. Alvarado, 923 F.2d 253, 256 (2d Cir.1991) (a challenge rate nearly twice the likely minority percentage of the venire strongly supports a prima facie case under Batson ). The statistics are not conclusive, however. Once a prima facie case has been established, the burden shifts to the opposing party to provide a racially neutral explanation for the strikes. Batson, supra, 476 U.S. at 96, 106 S.Ct. at 1722-23; Nelson, supra, 649 A.2d at 310. The next question to be addressed is whether Ms. Baucom effectively provided a sufficient nondiscriminatory explanation. Like Judge Ruiz, I focus in this connection on the issues relating to Juror No. 61. [6] The defense case was directed primarily to the plaintiff's strike of this juror, and the relief requested in the trial court was that Juror No. 61 be seated. If the defendants cannot prove that discrimination occurred with respect to the peremptory challenge of this juror, it is unlikely that they can prevail at all. Plaintiff's counsel told the court that he did not strike Juror No. 61 because of her race, but because looking at her, she is young number 1 and I don't believe from the Plaintiff's perspective, I don't believe that she would be able to relate to the ability of a 75-year-old lady to ambulate after having suffered a stroke. Number 2, the employment is the Greenpeace Development and I looked at the employment as Greenpeace as being something of a liberal nature and I am not interested in having somebody that works for Greenpeace on this jury. Each of the justifications provided by counsel is sufficient to meet the requirements of Step 2 of Batson. Age is racially neutral, and we have held that a party is not constitutionally precluded from basing a peremptory strike on a juror's age. Baxter v. United States, 640 A.2d 714, 718 n. 5 (D.C.1994). Although the Greenpeace liberal justification is a little more dubious, the second step of [the Batson ] process does not demand an explanation that is persuasive or even plausible. Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765, 768, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 1771, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995) (per curiam) (emphasis added). Indeed, a legitimate reason is not a reason that makes sense, but a reason that does not deny equal protection. Id. The plaintiff having presented ostensibly nondiscriminatory justifications for her strikes, the burden was on the defendants to establish that these justifications were pretextual and that Ms. Baucom's counsel purposely exercised his peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner.