Court Opinion

ID: 9580344
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:04:12.524055+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:13.329377
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COMPTON, with whom CHIEF JUSTICE CARRICO
joins, dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority’s conclusion that Layne’s extra-judicial statement to Motley was inadmissible hearsay and that the trial court erred in admitting the statement into evidence. I also believe that this error was reversible error, thus rendering the entire discussion contained in Parts I and II of the majority opinion, dealing with the juror issue, wholly advisory in nature and mere dicta unnecessary to a decision of the appeal.
*408In our adversary system of justice, appellate courts do not sit to render opinions on moot questions or abstract matters. Instead, appellate courts consider and decide only questions arising in an actual controversy which require a determination of issues affecting the rights of a party to the litigation. Hallmark v. Jones, 207 Va. 968, 970-71, 154 S.E.2d 5, 6-7 (1967). In this case, once the determination is made that error occurred in the admission of the evidence, no discussion of the juror issue is necessary because that error, standing alone, requires a reversal and the juror issue will not arise upon retrial.
Even if it is actually necessary to rule on the juror issue, I disagree with the majority’s decision on that question. In my opinion, the Administrator gave racially neutral reasons for striking the juror. Considerations of age, demeanor, and occupation, the reasons used for striking the juror, have nothing to do with race. Any competent trial attorney should consider age, demeanor, and occupation in deciding how to employ peremptory strikes.
And, the trial judge’s finding “that there’s not a racially neutral explanation” is not binding on this Court on appeal because, under the circumstances of this case, this is a mixed ruling of law and fact. Even though this Court is bound by the factual findings of a trial court, if supported by credible evidence, a mixed finding of law and fact is properly reviewable on appeal. City of Richmond v. Braxton, 230 Va. 161, 163-64, 335 S.E.2d 259, 261 (1985). Thus, I would hold that the rule of Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., 500 U.S__, 111 S.Ct. 2077 (1991), has not been violated because the exclusion of the juror in question was not race-based.