Court Opinion

ID: 9540432
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:15:55.374801+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:20.785070
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, Judge,
concurring.
I agree that the refusal of the trial court to honor the truckers’ peremptory challenge of Ms. Ivy requires reversal and remand for a new trial. However, in doing so, I would proffer a slightly different analysis of the three-pronged basis for the challenge.
The challenge was made upon three grounds:
(1) Ivy’s statement that because of two incidents, truck drivers “[are] not my favorite.” Tr. at 33.
(2) Ivy recalled knowing Hoskins’s children who sang in Ivy’s church choir and thought of them as social acquaintances.
(3) Because Ivy and Hoskins were both very active in their churches, Ivy might identify, with Hoskins, causing her to favor the plaintiff.
To be sure, Ivy stated that, in spite of these factors, she could hear the evidence and judge the case “with an open mind.” Tr. at 35. Nevertheless, in the context of a peremptory challenge, absent a Batson type objection, no reason need be given for the challenge. Price v. State, 725 N.E.2d 82 (Ind.2000).5 The defendants were not required to accept Ivy’s claim of objectivity.
In this regard it is important to note that a Batson type objection to a peremptory challenge is available in civil litigation as well as in criminal cases or other cases in which the government is involved.6 Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., Inc., 500 U.S. 614, 111 S.Ct. 2077, 114 L.Ed.2d 660 (1991) (the Court majority, with Justices O’Connor, Scalia, and the Chief Justice dissenting, found a racially-based peremptory challenge by a private litigant involved state action sufficient to trigger federal constitutional principles).
In the case before us, Hoskins concedes that Ivy’s expressed attitude toward truck drivers and her acquaintance with Hos-kins’s daughters were racially neutral. The majority here states its belief that the matter of acquaintance with members of Hoskins’s family, membership in the same church, and a social connection “nearly reaches the level of constituting a challenge ‘for cause.’” Op. at 949. In my *955view, it may very well do so, but the matter of a bias against truck drivers is even more obvious as a cause for removal of the prospective juror.7
With regard to the aspect of the peremptory challenge relating to the active church involvement of both Ivy and Hos-kins, it is possible to read into that factor a racial overtone. To do so, however, would be to conclude that African-American churchgoers tend to be more involved than other races or that, if they are involved churchgoers, African-Americans bond with each other more closely than churchgoers of other races. Such a reading, however, would necessarily single out African-American churchgoers as a group separate and distinct from all other churchgoers in the larger community. Such a conclusion is neither rational nor factually supported.
The United States Supreme Court has not yet ruled upon whether peremptory challenges based upon religious affiliation are akin to the prohibitions for race, gender, and ethnicity. State court decisions upon the matter are split. See generally Caroline R. Krivaeka & Paul D. Krivacka, Annotation, Use of Peremptory Challenges to Exclude Persons from Criminal Jury Based on Religious Affiliation, 63 A.L.R. 5th 375, 1998 WL 1032133 (1998).
In Thorson v. State, 721 So.2d 590 (Miss.1998) for example, the Mississippi Supreme Court en banc, unanimously held that under state statutory and constitutional law, a peremptory challenge of two jurors based solely upon their membership in the Holiness faith was impermissible.
In State v. Davis, 504 N.W.2d 767 (Minn.1993), however, the court held that the Batson prohibition does not extend to peremptory challenges based upon religious affiliation. In Davis the challenge to an African-American juror was not premised upon race but rather upon membership in the Jehovah’s Witness faith. In making the peremptory challenge the prosecutor stated that she always challenged members of the faith because they are reluctant to exercise authority over or sit in judgment of their fellow human beings. The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed allowance of the peremptory challenge. One of the two dissenters, however, distinguished between exclusion of a prospective juror merely due to religious affiliation and exclusion of a prospective juror after questioning which would reflect that the juror’s religion would interfere with her ability to act impartially. (The prosecutor had not followed up with questions to the jurors concerning their abilities to sit impartially).
I would not speculate upon what the Indiana Supreme Court might decide concerning a peremptory challenge whether based solely upon religion or based upon an arguably neutral ground albeit generated by religious affiliation and/or with possible racial overtones.8
Be that as it may, in my estimation, Juror Ivy as a churchgoer was not a member of a sufficiently cognizable group as to trigger the equal protection provisions of the U.S. Constitution. As noted in 50A C.J.S., Juries, § 445 at 482:
*956“There is some authority for the view that, in order for a group to be cognizable, it is necessary that the group be definable and limited by some clearly identifiable factor; a common thread of attitudes, ideas, or experiences run through the group; and that a community of interests exists among the group’s members .... ” (footnote citations omitted).
The Hoskins objection to the peremptory challenge of Ivy with respect to the church affiliation aspect was not sufficient to necessitate the defendants’ obligation to come forward with a racially neutral reason for the challenge on that basis. The reason stated for the challenge was, on its face, racially neutral and has not been shown to be a mere pretext for a racially based challenge. The other two bases for the challenge were clearly racially neutral. For the reasons stated herein, in addition to the rationale supplied by the majority opinion, I concur in the reversal and the remand for a new trial.
With regard to Part 3 of the majority opinion, the giving of Instruction 13 was held erroneous solely because there was no evidence that the trailer in question weighed more than 3,000 pounds. Under the evidence of this case, I find two other fatal defects in the tendered instruction.
The instruction refers to the requirement that the vehicle must have two “clearance lamps” on the rear, one on each side, and also a “stoplight.” Appellee’s App. at 96. The statute, I.C. § 9-19-6-7(4)(E) (Burns Code Ed. Repl.1997), contains a separate requirement for two “reflectors” on the rear of the trailer or semitrailer. It is clear, therefore, that clearance lamps and stoplights are not the same thing as reflectors. Accordingly, it stands to reason that the “lamps” or “lights” are precisely that and display a light rather than merely reflect a light back into the eyes of the viewer. Such lights may be either red, amber, or yellow. I.C. § 9 — 19— 6-8 (Burns Code Ed. Repl.1997). However, it would seem obvious that such lights require a power source and would not be visible if the trailer were unattended. This conclusion is buttressed by the fact that the requirement states that the clearance lamps be visible “at the times lights are required.” I.C. § 9-19-6-10 (Burns Code Ed. Repl.1997).
In this regard, I am unable to perceive that an instruction concerning the use of clearance laipps and a stoplight would have any relevance to a parked and unattended trailer which had been parked and remained parked for a period of several hours.
Furthermore, the instruction states that the visibility requirement for the clearance lamps and stoplight (even assuming them to be in operation at the time in question), is “under normal atmospheric conditions.” Appellee’s App. at 96 (emphasis supplied). It is unquestioned that the atmospheric conditions at the time with which we are concerned were far from normal. Once again, I fail to perceive any relevance of the tendered instruction to the time, circumstances or conditions present in the case before us.
It is inappropriate to give an instruction which would tend to mislead the jury even though it may contain a correct statement of law in the abstract. Hotz v. Gelsthorpe, 180 Ind.App. 24, 387 N.E.2d 78 (1979). As stated in Indianapolis Hous. Auth. v. Pippin, 726 N.E.2d 341, 349 (Ind.Ct.App.2000):
“The purpose of instructions is to guide the jury in the application of correct principles of law to the facts of the case before them.” (emphasis supplied).
The instruction in question did not do so. For this reason, and even if there were evidence that the trailer weighed more than 3,000 pounds, the instruction should *957have been denied. It should not be given upon retrial.
In all other respects I fully concur.

. Since the Batson decision prohibiting race-based peremptory challenges, the United States Supreme Court has added challenges based upon ethnicity, Hernandez v. Hew York, 500 U.S. 352, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991), and gender-based challenges, J.E.B. v. Alabama ex reí. T.B., 511 U.S. 127, 114 S.Ct. 1419, 128 L.Ed.2d 89 (1994). In Hernandez, the challenge was made to Latino jurors, and the Supreme Court analyzed the discriminatory aspects of the case in terms of a race-based challenge.

. The J.E.B. v. Alabama decision involved a civil paternity suit in which the State exercised nine of its ten peremptories to excuse male jurors. In her separate concurring opinion, Justice O'Connor expressed the view that the holding of gender-based discrimination should be limited to "the government’s use of gender-based peremptory strikes.” 511 U.S. at 147, 114 S.Ct. 1419, (emphasis in original).

. One may speculate why defendants did not first attempt to challenge Ivy for cause, but a plausible explanation would be that they felt that such a challenge might not be successful and, in light of racially neutral reasons, concluded that a peremptory challenge would be accepted by the court.

. It may be noted, however, that our Supreme Court in Price, supra, considered two peremptory challenges based upon age. The prosecutor merely stated as his reason for the challenge that he “preferred not to have young people on the jury.” 725 N.E.2d at 86. The Court held that.age is not an impermissible basis for using a peremptory challenge.