Court Opinion

ID: 9595124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:35:56.276292+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:26.146093
License: Public Domain

Pope, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur with Presiding Judge McMurray’s initial conclusion that the record is insufficient in this case “to show by the record the facts necessary to prove [defendant’s] claim under Batson.” Shaw v. State, 201 Ga. App. 438, 440 (1) (411 SE2d 534) (1991). For that reason, I agree that the judgment of the trial court must be affirmed.
I agree, as noted by Judge Blackburn, that the issue is not whether the record shows defendant established a prima facie case of discrimination. The preliminary issue of whether the defendant made a prima facie showing of intentional discrimination becomes moot where, as here, the trial judge made no ruling on whether defendant has made a prima facie showing of discrimination but the prosecutor nevertheless offered a race-neutral explanation for the challenges and the trial court ruled on the issue. Hernandez v. New York, 500 U. S. _ (111 SC 1859, 1866, 114 LE2d 395) (1991); Lewis v. State, 262 Ga. 679 (2) (424 SE2d 626) (1993). The issue of whether the defendant made a prima facie showing of discrimination, however, is but the first of three issues which, must be evaluated in a Batson case. The *370final two steps in an evaluation of a Batson challenge remain: on appeal the reviewing court must still determine whether the prosecutor adequately articulated a race-neutral explanation for striking the jurors in question and whether the trial court correctly determined whether purposeful discrimination was shown. Thus, the record must contain sufficient evidence from which the reviewing court may reach a conclusion concerning whether the trial court erred. Because the record in this case is insufficient to show the trial court erred in its ruling on defendant’s Batson challenge, the trial court’s ruling must be affirmed.
In this case, the explanation offered by the prosecutor for his peremptory strikes against black jurors was his concern about their employment status in that they were either unemployed or had a history of irregular employment. In response, defendant attempted to show that the prosecutor’s explanation was pretextual because several white jurors had the same employment status or history. The record, however, is simply insufficient for this court to determine whether the trial court erred in rejecting defendant’s argument. The record does not contain the transcript of the voir dire examination of prospective jurors from which the employment status of white jurors may be determined. As noted by Presiding Judge McMurray, the defendant failed to complete the record by any of the several methods provided by statute, such as amendment or supplement to the record pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-41 (f) or (g) or stipulation of the facts pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-41 (i).
Except for the colloquy concerning defendant’s Batson motion, the only information in the record relevant to the issues raised in the motion is a document, apparently prepared by the superior court clerk, which purports to supply certain biographical information about each prospective juror. For some jurors who were excluded, the space provided for occupation is left blank, while for other jurors the form indicates “none” or “unemployed.” In my opinion, this unsworn and incomplete information is simply an insufficient basis on which we may make any comparison of the employment status of those jurors who were excluded by the State and those who were not excluded in order to determine whether the trial court erred in rejecting defendant’s argument that the State exercised its peremptory strikes in a racially discriminatory manner.
I am authorized to state that Judge Andrews and Judge Johnson join in this special concurrence.