Court Opinion

ID: 9847158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:54:51.596731+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:02.210366
License: Public Domain

Benham, Justice,
dissenting.
To the extent that Division 6 of the majority opinion denies a defendant standing to challenge the racially-motivated use of peremptory strikes unless the defendant is of the same race as the jurors, I would disagree.
Reliance by the majority on Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (106 SC 1712, 90 LE2d 69) (1986) for such a proposition is misplaced since I read Batson as not requiring group correlation as a prerequisite for mounting an Equal Protection challenge to the state’s use of its peremptory challenges. Five members of the U. S. Supreme Court have clearly expressed that opinion recently in Holland v. Illinois, _U. S__(_SC _,_LE2d_) (58 USLW 4163, case no. 88-5050, decided January 22, 1990):
. . . Like Justice Marshall, I find it essential to make clear that if the claim here were based on the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause, it would have merit.
Many of the concerns expressed in Batson, a case where a black defendant objected to the exclusion of black jurors, support as well an equal protection claim by a defendant whose race or ethnicity is different from the dismissed juror’s. To bar the claim whenever the defendant’s race is not the same as the juror’s would be to concede that racial exclusion of citizens from the duty, and honor, of jury service will be tolerated, or even condoned. We cannot permit even the inference that this principle will be accepted, for it is inconsistent with the equal participation in civic life that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees. I see no obvious reason to conclude that a defendant’s race should deprive him of standing in his own trial to vindicate his own jurors’ right to sit. As Justice Marshall states, Batson is based in large part on the right to be tried by a jury whose members are selected by non-discriminatory criteria and on the need to preserve public confidence in the jury system. These are not values shared only by those of a particular color; they are important to all criminal defendants.
*177Decided May 17, 1990.
Gleason, Davis & Dunn, John W. Davis, Jr., David J. Dunn, Jr., for appellant.
Ralph Van Pelt, Jr., District Attorney, Michael J. Bowers, Attorney General, Richard C. Litwin, for appellee.
Justice Kennedy, concurring, 58 USLW 4166. Justice Marshall, in his dissent, vehemently disagreed with the opinion of the plurality (Justice Scalia, with Justices Rehnquist, White and O’Connor) that Holland did not have a Sixth Amendment claim, and, further, found that had Holland raised a Batson type claim under the Equal Protection Clause, the claim would have had merit. Justices Brennan and Black-mun joined Justice Marshall’s dissent. Justice Stevens dissented separately, stating that
. . . The suggestion that only defendants of the same race or ethnicity as the excluded jurors can enforce the jurors’ right to equal treatment and equal respect recognized in Batson is itself inconsistent with the central message of the Equal Protection Clause. Id. at 4171.
It is also significant that the plurality in Holland expressly restricted its opinion to the Sixth Amendment claim and did not address Holland’s claim under the Equal Protection Clause. Id. at 4166. Thus, it is quite possible that some members of that majority might have found merit to a claim under the Equal Protection Clause.
Batson seeks (1) to protect the defendant’s right to a fair trial, (2) to provide jurors equal protection from discrimination, and (3) to enhance the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system. While Batson worked toward that first goal by providing a scheme for establishing a prima facie case of discrimination against jurors of the defendant’s race, Batson does not deny standing to a person of a different racial or ethnic group to challenge discriminatory jury challenges. To hold otherwise obstructs the accomplishment of Batson’s other goals.
For the reasons just stated, I believe appellant had standing to raise a Batson challenge and that the denial of that right was error. Accordingly, I must dissent.
I am authorized to state that Justice Hunt joins in this dissent.