Court Opinion

ID: 9861523
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:09:01.316297+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:37.559154
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE CAMPBELL, dissenting: I agree with the majority that the evidence of guilt was overwhelming as to the charges against defendant. I respectfully dissent, however, insofar as the majority has affirmed the judgment of convic-tion and refused to grant a new trial, where defendant, a black man, raised the issue of racial bias where the State exercised 10 of its peremptory challenges to excuse every black person from the jury. No black juror sat on the jury. Defendant’s counsel objected to the tactics of the State and stated, “As the Court is aware State exercised 10 peremptory chailenges and each challenge excused a Black person. I feel that my client is entitled to a jury of his peers, your honor. I feel that he is being denied this. I would ask the Court for a mistrial.” The State responded by stating that “there was an attempt, your Honor, to have a balance of an equal number of men and women as the jury is now comprised there are seven men and five women sitting on the jury. We feel counsel’s motion is totally improper.” The court then stated, “Counsel, I feel that it would appear that the jury appears to be a fair jury. I will deny your motion.” The above constitutes the extent of the inquiry and pretrial hearing on the issue of the improper use of the State’s peremptory challenge to achieve a racially biased jury. Defendant argues that the State failed to explain why the blacks excluded did not fit the profile of the jurors selected and approved by the State. On appeal, the State, conceding the use of its peremptory challenge to exclude 10 blacks from jury duty, has reaffirmed its position by stating in its brief “the People attempted to have a balance of men and women.” The State seems to be simply arguing how a jury is selected and defendant is arguing why a jury is selected. The State relies on Swain v. Alabama (1965), 380 U.S. 202, 13 L. Ed. 2d 759, 85 S. Ct. 824, and contends that defendant may not inquire into a prosecutor’s motives in a particular case and the. presumption must be that the prosecutor is using the State’s challenges to obtain a fair and impartial jury. This presumption must give way in the light of facts to the contrary as are evident in this case. This court, in a well-reasoned decision, People v. Payne (1982), 106 Ill. App. 3d 1034, 436 N.E.2d 1046,1 recently held that under the sixth amendment, “Swain does not apply to an accused’s right not to have the State affirmatively frustrate his sixth amendment right to a jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community, which is the constitutional issue underlying a decision in this case. We therefore apply Taylor and its rationale to this case rather than Swain, and we conclude that the sixth amendment precludes the State, i.e., the prosecuting attorney, from affirmatively frustrating the right of the accused to a jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community by utilizing peremptory challenges to exclude blacks from the jury solely because they are blacks.” 106 Ill. App. 3d 1034, 1042-43, 436 N.E.2d 1046,1052. The Payne case goes into great detail to set forth the numerous cases wherein this issue has been raised, and this pernicious and systematic practice by the State is made even worse by the frequency of the occurrence.2 There is little doubt that the State has embraced enthusiastically the results produced by the improper use of the peremptory challenge to achieve a racially biased jury in this case. In fact, this practice was unnecessary and superfluous and resulted in error. The evidence of guilt was so overwhelming that the finding of guilt would probably not have changed even if the composition of the jury had been of the same ethnic group as defendant. The State also argues that defendant must show the systematic use of peremptory challenges against blacks over a period of time. This argument completely exonerates the State and gives the State the clean hands it claims it so richly deserves. To cast such a burden on defendant denies defendant a fair trial and ascribes good faith efforts to the State despite the presence and existence of the unconstitutional practice of the State of arbitrarily withdrawing the privilege of jury service from black citizens. The practice of the State may appear fair in form, but admittedly has a discriminatory impact and discriminates in its operation. Any such burden placed on defendant of establishing a prima facie case of prosecutorial misconduct would entail proof of a plan conceived or operated as a purposeful devise or technique to further racial discrimination. The precise nature and extent of the evidence necessary to establish such proof or intent would be most difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Any burden placed on defendant should not aid the trial court in avoiding its responsibility to a defendant by closing its eyes to obvious practices occurring at trial in open court especially where such practices tend to undermine our traditional guarantee of a fair trial. In Commonwealth v. Henderson (1981), 497 Pa. 23, 438 A.2d 951, Justice Nix stated in his dissent: was clear not to endorse the prosecutor’s conduct but to protect the integrity and proper administration of the judicial system. The observation by the court in this case was “that the jury appears to be a fair jury” was clearly an endorsement. The defendant disagreed with a timely objection and with ample justification. A more probing and searching look and a more extensive hearing by the court was needed so that a disproportionate number of challenges were not used to facilitate and justify an invidious discriminatory purpose. See People v. Payne; People v. Wheeler (1978), 22 Cal. 3d 258, 583 P.2d 748, 148 Cal. Rptr. 890; Commonwealth v. Soares (1979), 377 Mass. 593, 387 N.E. 2d 499, cert. denied, (1979), 444 U.S. 881, 62 L. Ed. 2d 110, 100 S. Ct. 170; see also Annot., Use of Peremptory Challenges, 79 A.L.R. 3d 14 (1977). “Is justice to sit supinely by and be flaunted in case after case before a remedy is available? Is justice only obtainable after repeated injustices are demonstrated? Is there any justification within the traditions of the Anglo-Saxon legal philosophy that permits the use of a presumption to hide the existence of an obvious fact?” 497 Pa. 23, 43, 438 A.2d 951, 961. It would certainly follow in this case that the duty of the court Payne does not call for the abolition of peremptory challenges or to emasculate its function, but seeks to avoid the consequences of a biased jury and a perverted use of said peremptory challenges by the State with the acquiescence of the trial court. The trial court and this court have approved the conduct of the State by finding that no constitutional infirmity existed in the exercise of the State’s peremptory challenges to obtain a biased jury. The State is again free to engage in more flagrant abuses as appear from the record in this case. It may be said in this case that one of the grandest of all abounding illusions may be the illusion possessed by the State that through the use of its 10 peremptory challenges to exclude 10 blacks that the State was only attempting “to have a balance of an equal number of men and women.” I remain unconvinced of the State’s efforts and view the action as a devise or technique to circumvent the constitutional guarantees of an unbiased jury and a fair trial. I also find that the principles of Payne, Wheeler and Soares should be controlling in the case at bar and that the application of the standards cited by the State and the majority are misplaced. I would reverse the convictions by reason of the fact that the use of peremptory challenges by the State denied an impartial jury and due process and so tainted or polluted the jury as to require a new trial.  The opinion in Payne was issued subsequent to oral argument in the instant case.   It does not appear that any records or reports are compiled of the disposition of cases pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 23 (85 Ill. 2d R. 23), wherein this issue has been raised, i.e. People v. Batteast (1982), 105 Ill. App. 3d 1201.