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Chambers v. State1/27/2004
NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED
EN BANC
. Travis L. Chambers was convicted for the crime of sale of cocaine within fifteen hundred feet of a church in Waynesboro, Mississippi. Chambers was sentenced to a term of twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections as a prior convicted felon. Following the trial, Chambers' motions for a JNOV or in the alternative, a new trial were denied by the trial court. Feeling aggrieved, Chambers appeals the following errors:
I. THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY VIOLATED BATSON BY USING HIS PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES TO PURPOSEFULLY STRIKE AFRICAN AMERICANS FROM THE JURY POOL, EVEN THOUGH THE RACE NEUTRAL REASONS GIVEN FOR THE STRIKES APPLIED TO WHITES WHOM THE STATE ACCEPTED.
II. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY ALLOWING THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI TO INTRODUCE THE ALLEGED COCAINE INTO EVIDENCE OVER THE OBJECTION OF THE DEFENDANT.
III. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY FAILING TO GRANT A DIRECTED VERDICT AND THE VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE.
. Finding the issues raised by Chambers without merit, we affirm the trial court's rulings.
FACTS
. On September 12, 2001, undercover officer Chad McElvin and confidential informant Karen Gibbs met in Wayne County, Mississippi in order to purchase narcotics from drug violators in Waynesboro, Mississippi. Gibbs' automobile was wired with audio and video equipment in order to record the transactions. As Gibbs turned down Central Avenue in Waynesboro, Mississippi three African American males approached the automobile and offered to sell them some crack cocaine. Two males each gave Gibbs a rock-like substance in exchange for forty dollars. McElvin and Gibbs left Central Avenue and proceeded to a post-buy location where they handed the substances to Officer Martin Overstreet, who is the Commander of the South Mississippi Narcotics Task Force.
. The audio and video tapes were then removed from the automobile. The videotape was later shown to another Waynesboro police officer, Leonard Frost, who viewed the tape, and identified Chambers as a seller of the substance. Frost testified that he knew Chambers and his parents from his years on the police force which enabled Frost to identify Chambers on the videotape. The undercover officer, Chad McElvin, also identified Chambers as a seller of the illegal substances through a photographic lineup. Officer Overstreet testified that the drugs were sold within a tenth of a mile of a church on Central Avenue.
. Chambers was tried and convicted for sale of cocaine within fifteen hundred feet of a church. He was sentenced to serve a term of twenty years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
I. DID THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY VIOLATE BATSON BY USING HIS PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES TO PURPOSEFULLY STRIKE AFRICAN AMERICANS FROM THE JURY POOL, EVEN THOUGH THE RACE NEUTRAL REASONS GIVEN FOR THE STRIKES APPLIED TO WHITES WHOM THE STATE ACCEPTED?
. Chambers claims that the proscriptions against using peremptory jury challenges for racially-motivated reasons, as announced in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), were violated when the State used four of its permitted six challenges to exclude African American jurors. Chambers argues that the race-neutral reasons offered by the State were a pretext to hide the State's true purpose of excluding African American jurors. During voir dire at Chambers' trial, both Caucasian and African American jurors answered questions that they had relatives in their families who were prior convicted felons or had pending
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