U.S. Supreme Ct - May 23rd, 2016

by: Aalvarez • May 29, 2016 • no comments

Batson - Finding of Purposeful Discrimination Despite Race Neutral Explanations

The Court found purposeful discrimination despite the state's race neutral explanations for striking all prospective black jurors where the prosecutor's notes revealed that the prosecutor's "race neutral" explanations were not the actual reasons the jurors were struck. Coupled with a variety of notes that made clear that the prosecutor's focused on the juror's race, the Court refused to give credit to the prosecutor's "race neutral" justifications.

Here, the Court reversed a conviction in a capital murder case on the grounds that the state unlawfully utilized is peremptory strikes on the basis of race. During the second half of jury selection there were four black prospective jurors left on the panel. The state used nine of its ten peremptory strikes and removed all four of the remaining black jurors. The defendant immediately lodged a Batson challenge, which the trial court rejected. Ultimately the jury was empaneled and the defendant was convicted and sentenced to death. Post-conviction, the defendant was able to obtain copies of the prosecutor's notes from the jury selection phase of the case. The notes indicated that the prosecutors were focused on the potential juror's race. For example, the prosecutor's circled the race of black jurors, but not white jurors. With regard to two of the four potential black jurors, the notes revealed that the "race neutral" explanations offered to the court contradicted what was in the notes. Specifically, the notes related to two of the four potential black jurors revealed the following:

• Marilyn Garrett - With regards to Garrett, the prosecutor had told the trial court that their strike was a last-minute race-neutral decision. However, the notes revealed that the state had specifically identified Garrett in advance as a "definite NO."

• Eddie Hood - With regards to Hood, the state explained that they struck Hood because he had a son who was the same age as the defendant, but they allowed white prospective jurors with sons of similar age to serve on the jury. Further, the prosecutor claimed that Hood's strike was also based on his membership in the Church of Christ and explained that three other white members of the same church were struck for the same reason, when the notes and the records show that those jurors were excused for reasons unrelated to their church membership. Additionally, a document acquired from the file contained a handwritten note state "NO. NO Black Church."

Although the state attempted to explain away the contradictions, in the end the Court found that "the focus on race in the prosecution's file plainly demonstrates a concerted effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury."