Court Opinion

ID: 9571142
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:29:20.021485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:47.126373
License: Public Domain

*641Barnes, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in Divisions 2 and 3 of the majority opinion, but along with Judge Phipps, dissent to Division 1 and to the majority’s decision to overrule Ayiteyfio v. State, 254 Ga. App. 1 (561 SE2d 157) (2002). Ayiteyfio simply involves the time-honored rule of applying apples to apples, and oranges to oranges. Thus, when the trial judge says that he finds discriminatory intent because a black juror with a relative in law enforcement remained seated while a white juror with a relative in law enforcement, in addition to other factors, was struck, he is comparing an apple to an orange. Therefore, the trial judge’s conclusion based on this obvious error was clearly erroneous. The trial judge in Ayiteyfio did not base his conclusion on the totality of the circumstances; he based it on his erroneous determination that the two jurors were similarly situated when they were not.
The majority reads Ayiteyfio too broadly. Nothing in Ayiteyfio establishes a per se rule or limits a trial judge’s discretion to accept, reject, or infer that any of the reasons proffered in support of a strike were or were not racially motivated. The case merely holds that when the trial court bases its finding on nothing more than a misapprehension of the facts, the finding will be held to be clearly erroneous.
This holding does not weaken the rule that appellate courts give great deference to the trial courts’ determinations or does not encroach upon the trial courts’ decision-making process; it merely points out that, as a factual matter, a juror with three undesirable characteristics is not similarly situated to another juror with only one of those characteristics. The appellate courts will continue to defer to the trial courts’ discretion, so long as they consider accurate facts in determining whether the opposing party has proven that a strike is racially motivated.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent to Division 1 of the majority.
I am authorized to state that Judge Miller joins in this dissent.