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People v. Mayfield1/2/1997
was equally strong as to both groups of offenses, and neither was significantly more inflammatory than the other. Accordingly, defendant has failed to demonstrate that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion for severance.
III. JURY SELECTION
A. Discriminatory Exercise of Peremptory Challenges
During jury selection, the defense moved for mistrial on the ground that the prosecutor had used peremptory challenges to excuse three African-American prospective jurors because of their race. The trial court denied the motion, finding both that the defense had failed to establish a prima facie case that the prosecution had exercised peremptory challenges on the basis of race and that, in any event, the prosecutor had provided satisfactory, nondiscriminatory reasons for excusing these jurors by peremptory challenge. Defendant contends that in so ruling the trial court committed error requiring reversal of the judgment.
After the prosecutor had used a peremptory challenge against prospective juror Franklin Atkins, defense counsel moved for a mistrial on the ground that the prosecutor was "systematically excluding all black jurors on the panel." Specifically, defense counsel charged that the prosecutor had excused prospective jurors Franklin Atkins and Carla Hunter because of their race. The trial court announced it would hold a hearing on the motion the following morning, at which time it would ask the prosecutor "to justify the excusal of those two jurors" and suggested that counsel continue with jury selection for the remainder of the day.
Shortly thereafter, the prosecutor exercised a peremptory challenge against a third Black prospective juror, Harris Jones. Defense counsel asked that the pending motion be expanded to include this peremptory challenge as well. The trial court then discontinued jury selection pending a ruling on the defense motion.
On the following morning, the trial court announced that after reviewing the law it now realized that the defense had the burden of establishing a prima facie case of intentional discrimination in the use of peremptory challenges, and that if the defense succeeded in doing so the burden would then shift to the prosecution to establish a nondiscriminatory reason for the challenges. Defense counsel then explained the basis for his Conclusion that the prosecutor had excused the three Black jurors on the basis of their race. The trial court made a finding that the defense had failed to establish a prima facie case. But the trial court nonetheless directed the prosecutor "for the record" to explain why he had exercised peremptory challenges against each of the three Black prospective jurors. The prosecutor then explained the reasons for these challenges. The trial court reiterated the finding that the defense had not made a prima facie case and added a second finding that the basis of the prosecutor's challenge to the three jurors in question was "not group bias but rather a specific bias that relates to the issues in this case" and that the challenges "were justified in that sense."
The use of peremptory challenges to eliminate prospective jurors because of their race is prohibited by the federal Constitution ( Powers v. Ohio (1991) 499 U.S. 400, 409 [113 L. Ed. 2d 411, 424, 111 S. Ct. 1364]; Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79, 89 [90 L. Ed. 2d 69, 82-83, 106 S. Ct. 1712]) and by the California Constitution ( People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal. 3d 258, 276-277 [148 Cal. Rptr. 890, 583 P.2d 748]). A defendant claiming such discrimination has the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case. ( People v. Arias (1996) 13 Cal. 4th 92, 134-135 [51 Cal. Rptr. 2d 770, 913 P.2d
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 California DUI Attorneys
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