Court Opinion

ID: 9722708
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:46:25.636497+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:38.988881
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GALLAGHER, specially concurring: I concur in the judgment. I also concur with regard to the trial court’s raising of the Batson issue sua sponte. While I agree with the dissent that the three-step process articulated in Batson should be followed, I believe that occurred here. Although the trial court did not expressly state so, it is inferable that the court believed that a prima facie case was established when defense counsel excluded a second African-American. While it is arguable that the excusal did not constitute a pattern of strikes against African-Americans, since defense counsel also excused a white male and a white female, Batson requires that the relevant circumstances raise an inference of purposeful discrimination. To the trial court, such an inference was raised. Whether one agrees or disagrees is not the point. The point is that step one of the Batson process was followed. The trial court rightfully rejected defense counsel’s articulated reason that Mrs. Gomez worked at Cook County Hospital and thus would be in a position to observe gunshot victims. Mrs. Gomez made it clear that she worked in the business office of a clinic affiliated with the hospital but which was located in a separate building. After additional voir dire, defense counsel sought to excuse Mrs. Gomez because counsel wanted fewer women on the jury, and the court also was correct in rejecting that reason. In my view, although this was a novel presentation of the issue, the integrity of the Batson three-step process was preserved, and therefore, I concur in the judgment.