Court Opinion

ID: 9795484
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:29:54.544805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:30:09.209176
License: Public Domain

KENNARD, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I join the majority in affirming the judgment. I disagree, however, with the majority’s analysis of defendant’s *1033claim that the prosecution’s challenges to three prospective jurors were made on the impermissible basis of their race or ethnicity.
During jury selection, defendant objected to the prosecution’s peremptory challenges to three prospective jurors. Two of those jurors, P.T. and D.M., were African-American (as is defendant), and defense counsel asserted that the prosecution had challenged them because of their race. The third prospective juror, A.A., was Hispanic, and defense counsel contended that he was challenged because he was a “person of color.” In each instance, the trial court concluded that the defense had not made a prima facie showing that the prosecution’s peremptory challenges were made for a discriminatory purpose, but it invited the prosecution to give reasons for the three challenges. The prosecution did so, and in each instance the trial court evaluated these reasons and then overruled the defense objection. On this appeal, defendant faults those rulings, contending that the prosecution’s peremptory challenges violated his right under the California Constitution to a jury drawn from a representative cross-section of the community (see People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal.3d 258 [148 Cal.Rptr. 890, 583 P.2d 748] (Wheeler)), as well as his right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution (see Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79 [90 L.Ed.2d 69, 106 S.Ct. 1712] (Batson)).1
As the United States Supreme Court has explained, a three-step procedure applies when, as here, a party argues in the trial court that the opposing party is exercising a peremptory challenge for constitutionally impermissible reasons. First, the party attacking the peremptory challenge “must make out a prima facie case ‘by showing that the totality of the relevant facts gives rise to an inference of discriminatory purpose.’ ” (Johnson v. California (2005) 545 U.S. 162, 168 [162 L.Ed.2d 129, 125 S.Ct. 2410].) Once that showing is made, the burden shifts to the party who exercised the challenge to give its reasons. Then the trial court must decide whether the challenge was based on constitutionally permissible grounds. (Ibid:, see also People v. Johnson (2006) 38 Cal.4th 1096, 1099 [45 Cal.Rptr.3d 1, 136 P.3d 804].)
Applying here the first of that three-part test, the majority concludes that defendant failed to make a prima facie showing that any of the prosecution’s challenges were based on group bias. The majority reaches that conclusion after an independent review of the juror questionnaires and the prospective jurors’ answers to questions asked on voir dire. Because defendant did not *1034make the requisite prima facie showing, the majority holds, the trial court properly denied his Wheeler motion. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 1018-1020.)
I question the majority’s mode of analysis. “Once a prosecutor has offered a race-neutral explanation for the peremptory challenges and the trial court has ruled on the ultimate question of intentional discrimination, the preliminary issue of whether the defendant had made a prima facie showing becomes moot.” (Hernandez v. New York (1991) 500 U.S. 352, 359 [114 L.Ed.2d 395, 111 S.Ct. 1859] (plur. opn. of Kennedy, J.); see also People v. Boyette (2002) 29 Cal.4th 381, 469 [127 Cal.Rptr.2d 544, 58 P.3d 391] (dis. opn. of Kennard, J.).) Here, the prosecution gave reasons for the three peremptory challenges, and the trial court found no showing of intentional group discrimination. Thus, the preliminary issue of whether the defense made the requisite prima facie showing became moot. What does need to be decided, however, is whether the trial court was right in ruling that the prosecution’s three peremptory challenges were not impermissibly motivated by group bias. That determination requires an examination of the prosecution’s reasons for those peremptory challenges, a process in which the majority has not engaged.
The following illustration shows the inadequacy of the majority’s approach: A defendant objects at trial to the prosecution’s peremptory challenge to a prospective juror, asserting it is motivated by group bias. The trial court correctly concludes that the defense has not made the requisite prima facie showing but, out of an abundance of caution, asks the prosecution to state the reasons for the challenge. The prosecution responds that the challenge was made because of the prospective juror’s religious affiliation, unaware, as is the trial court, that this is a constitutionally impermissible reason. (See People v. Bell (2007) 40 Cal.4th 582, 596 [54 Cal.Rptr.3d 453, 151 P.3d 292].) The trial court overrules the defendant’s objection. Because in this example the defense had not made a prima facie showing of impermissible group bias before the prosecution gave its religion-based reason, the majority’s approach, when applied to this example, would ignore the fact that the prosecution’s stated reason for the peremptory challenge was religion-based, in violation of the defendant’s right under the California Constitution to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the population. This is wrong. When the prosecution’s stated reasons for a peremptory challenge are improper, “ ‘courts cannot effectively close their eyes to that fact by simply deciding that the defendant has not made out a prima facie case.’ ” (Holloway v. Horn (3d Cir. 2004) 355 F.3d 707, 724.) Thus, to evaluate defendant’s claim here of Wheeler/Batson error, there needs to be an examination of the prosecution’s reasons for peremptorily challenging the three prospective jurors. Only then can it be determined whether the challenges were based on constitutionally permissible or impermissible grounds.
*1035The prosecution said that its challenge to Prospective Juror P.T. was based on the juror’s attitude. In responding to the juror questionnaire, the juror said that if she disagreed with the judge’s instructions she would discuss the matter with the judge and they would “have to come to some agreement.” The prosecution considered that response “arrogant” and described the juror’s answers to voir dire questions as “flip” and the juror’s attitude in court as “smarty.” The trial court agreed.
The prosecution said it peremptorily challenged Prospective Juror D.M., a former professional football player, because “[tjhere was a swagger to his walk and a bravado in his style” that caused the prosecution to be concerned “about his ability to reach a consensus or to consider the matter carefully.” Defense counsel responded that D.M. “moved like an athlete,” a fact that counsel said had no bearing on his attitude toward the case. The trial court agreed with the prosecution’s concern, noting that the juror had refused to answer most of the inquiries on the jury questionnaire, writing the word “confidential” instead of an answer.
The prosecution challenged Prospective Juror A.A. because he had displayed in court a “flip attitude” by “swinging in his seat” during voir dire and “smirking at” the prosecutor, because he felt that child molesters who kill should “get treatment,” and because he strongly disagreed with the view that “an eye for an eye would be a fair and proper rule in the administration of the criminal justice system.” The trial court agreed, describing the juror as “immature, moving in his chair, flippant in his answers on his questionnaire . . . [and] trying to get off the jury panel.”
Substantial evidence supports the trial court’s ruling that the prosecution’s reasons for the peremptory challenges to the three prospective jurors in question were genuine and were neutral as to race and ethnicity. (See People v. Alvarez (1996) 14 Cal.4th 155, 196 [58 Cal.Rptr.2d 385, 926 P.2d 365] [“An appellate court reviews a trial court’s ruling on a motion under Wheeler and/or Batson for substantial evidence.”].) Because the trial court observed the demeanor of these prospective jurors, its findings are entitled to great deference. (People v. Reynoso (2003) 31 Cal.4th 903, 926 [3 Cal.Rptr.3d 769, 74 P.3d 852].)
Defendant insists that the prosecution’s reasons were pretextual, stating that the three challenged jurors’ answers to the jury questionnaires and their responses on voir dire did not differ significantly from those given by other prospective jurors. Assuming for the sake of argument that, when a defendant raises this issue for the first time on appeal, this court must undertake a comparative juror analysis (see People v. Zambrano (2007) 41 Cal.4th 1082, 1109 [63 Cal.Rptr.3d 297, 163 P.3d 4]), defendant’s argument here is *1036unpersuasive. There is no evidence that the other prospective jurors displayed the sort of demeanor that caused the prosecution to be concerned that the three challenged jurors might not fairly consider the evidence presented by the prosecution.
To summarize, the majority is wrong in rejecting defendant’s claim of Wheeler error based on Ms failure to make a prima facie showing that the prosecution’s peremptory challenges were motivated by a discriminatory purpose. Instead, the majority should have examined the prosecution’s stated reasons for the challenges. Nevertheless, as explained above, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the trial court properly rejected defendant’s Wheeler claim.
Moreno, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied March 26, 2008.

 At trial, defendant cited only to this court’s decision in Wheeler, supra, 22 Cal.3d 258, which is based on the state Constitution. On appeal, however, this court may properly consider his federal constitutional claim as well, because it is substantially similar to his claim under the state Constitution. (People v. Panah (2005) 35 Cal.4th 395, 438, fn. 13 [25 Cal.Rptr.3d 672, 107 P.3d 790].)