Opinion ID: 1629429
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Leola Florence

Text: We now turn our analysis to the second prospective juror which the court of appeal found the prosecutor improperly excluded from the jury, Leola Florence. The appellate court found the prosecutor challenged Ms. Florence because she was sleeping during voir dire, she had previously served on a hung jury in a criminal case, and she had received a subpoena in a possible ongoing case in which she may have been the victim. The trial court accepted the prosecutor's proffered race-neutral reasons without comment and simply denied the defense's Batson objection. Jacobs, 2007-887 p. 18, 13 So.3d at 692. [3] The court of appeal found the prosecutor failed to question Ms. Florence further about her jury service and that he treated differently a white prospective juror, Ms. Rood, who had also served on a previous hung jury. The court of appeal recognized, without realizing the significance of the distinction, that Ms. Florence volunteered the information that the jury she previously served on had not known what to do, whereas Ms. Rood, when asked, did not indicate there had been any lack of understanding of the jury's role in her prior service. Jacobs, 2007-887 p. 19, 13 So.3d at 692. This distinction alone may be enough to explain the prosecutor's different handling of these two jurors. However, we do not have to base our decision on this distinction alone, as the other two grounds raised by the prosecutor for challenging Ms. Florence additionally support the distinction made. [4] The appellate court did not address the prosecutor's other proffered reasons for challenging Ms. Florence, other than to note that the prosecutor did not question Ms. Florence further as to the subpoena she had received, and that the trial judge did not independently assess the plausibility of the prosecutor's proffered reasons. Jacobs, 2007-887 p. 20, 13 So.3d at 692. However, this Court has previously held that while a cause challenge may not be sustainable without an inquiry into whether the prospective juror's impartiality is affected, a prosecutor's peremptory challenge based on the fact that a prospective juror has been a victim of crime is race-neutral. Compare State v. Harris, 2001-2730 p. 12 (La.1/19/05), 892 So.2d 1238, 1261 with State v. Manning, XXXX-XXXX pp. 40-42 (La.10/19/04), 885 So.2d 1044, 1084-1085. Finally, with regard to the prosecutor's proffered reason that Ms. Florence was sleeping during voir dire, the court of appeal concluded: [5] Under Miller-El [6] and Snyder, [7] as noted above, the trial judge must independently assess the plausibility of the prosecutor's proffered reasons. Yet again, the trial judge failed to specifically address the plausibility of any of the prosecutor's proffered race-neutral explanations, based on the prosecutor's credibility and the prospective juror's demeanor. This failure also constituted reversible error. Jacobs, 2007-887 p. 20, 13 So.3d at 692. Since the court of appeal opinion was handed down, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Thaler v. Haynes, 559 U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1171, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2010), which provides an important limitation on the Supreme Court's previous analysis of Batson issues, specifically the Supreme Court's holding in Snyder. This new case specifically addresses the court of appeal's conclusion that Snyder requires some sort of articulation by the trial judge on a demeanor-based challenge. As such, a review of Thaler v. Haynes is critical to our analysis of the issue. Thaler v. Haynes is a per curiam decision in a federal habeas corpus case involving a Texas criminal defendant who was convicted in Texas state court of the murder of a police officer and sentenced to death. In this case, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that Batson, Snyder, or any other decision established a rule that a demeanor-based explanation for a peremptory challenge must be rejected unless the judge personally observed and recalled the relevant aspect of the prospective juror's demeanor. [8] In explaining its previous reasoning in Snyder, the Supreme Court noted the prosecutor in that case had proffered a demeanor-based explanation and a non-demeanor-based reason. The Supreme Court found the record negated the non-demeanor-based challenge and, in light of the particular circumstances of the case, we held that the peremptory challenge could not be sustained on the demeanor-based ground, which might not have figured in the trial judge's unexplained ruling. Thaler v. Haynes, No. 09-273, 130 S.Ct. at 1174-75. The Supreme Court explained that the particular circumstances of the case included the fact that the peremptory challenge was not exercised until some time after the juror was questioned, [and] the trial judge might not have recalled the juror's demeanor. Id. However, the Court maintained that [t]hese observations do not suggest that, in the absence of a personal recollection of the juror's demeanor, the judge could not have accepted the prosecutor's explanation. Indeed, Snyder quoted the observation in Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 365, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 114 L.Ed.2d 395(1991) (plurality opinion), that the best evidence of the intent of the attorney exercising a strike is often that attorney's demeanor. See 552 U.S., at 477, 128 S.Ct. 1203. Id., 130 S.Ct. at 1175 (emphasis added). In conclusion, the Supreme Court held that no decision of this Court clearly establishes the categorical rule on which the Court of Appeals appears to have relied, i.e., that in ruling on a demeanor-based explanation of a peremptory challenge, a trial judge must personally observe and remember the prospective juror's demeanor as characterized by the prosecutor. Id., 130 S.Ct. at 1175. The Supreme Court, in remanding, cautioned that its ruling did not mandate the rejection of the respondent's Batson claim with regard to this juror, but directed that the federal appellate court in this federal habeas matter consider whether the Texas courts' determination may be overcome under the federal habeas standard for reviewing a state court's resolution of a fact question. Id. Applying the rule of Thaler v. Haynes to this case, the trial court's failure to comment on the prosecutor's demeanor-based reason does not mean the peremptory challenge should automatically be rejected. Even if the trial judge did not observe Ms. Florence sleeping, his ruling on whether the prosecutor raised the challenge due to a purposeful discriminatory intent could have been validly based on the judge's personal observation of the prosecutor's demeanor. Under the Supreme Court's further explanation of its Snyder holding in Thaler v. Haynes , this alone would suffice to reject a Batson objection to a peremptory challenge premised on a demeanor-based reason. As found by the court of appeal, the trial judge expressly stated he accepted the state's race-neutral explanation. Upon closer analysis, and with the further guidance from the Supreme Court that no categorical rule exists to reject a demeanor-based explanation for a peremptory challenge when the trial judge fails to specifically comment on that explanation, we find each of the reasons given by the court of appeal for its conclusion that the prosecutor's proffered explanation for striking Ms. Florence was implausible, and that the trial judge failed in his duty to assess the implausibility of the prosecutor's stated reasons, are ultimately unsupported.