Court Opinion

ID: 9654850
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:52:58.845575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:14.150608
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
A prima facie case has been defined as one
“[s]uch as will suffice until contradicted and overcome by other evidence, [citation omitted]. A case which has proceeded upon sufficient proof to that stage where it will support finding if evidence to contrary is disregarded, [citation omitted].” Blacks Law Dictionary, 4th Edition.
As the majority correctly notes, the defendant must establish a “prima facie case that the prosecutor in fact made racially motivated strikes against eligible venire-members” before the prosecutor must explain the use of his peremptory strikes. In reviewing the “relevant circumstances” presented by the instant record, I cannot conclude that a prima facie case is made. The only evidence presented was that four of six black venirepersons were struck peremptorily by the prosecutor.
Absent any other factors, it cannot be said that such statistics reasonably establish an inference of purposeful discrimination on the part of the State. It seems grossly unfair to engage in such a presumption against any officer of the court.
It seems well settled that Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, holds that, after establishing that the defendant is a member of a cognizable racial group and that the trial prosecutor has exercised his peremptory challenges in order to remove from the venire members of the defendant’s race, in order to establish a prima facie case of purposeful racial discrimination on the part of the trial prosecutor in the exercise of his peremptory challenges, a defendant must then also show that these facts and circumstances raise an inference that the trial prosecutor used that practice to exclude the veniremembers from the petit jury on account of their race. Batson, 476 U.S. at 96, 106 S.Ct. at 1723.
In the case at bar, appellant has failed to show the facts presented raise such an inference. The third prong of Batson has not been satisfied.
I respectfully dissent.