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State v. Robinson4/14/2004
monstrates that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in granting the State's challenges for cause as to each of the panel members in dispute. All repeatedly voiced strong religious and moral opposition to the imposition of the death penalty despite defense counsel's attempts at rehabilitation. For this reason, we find no error on the part of the trial court in granting the State's challenge for cause.
E. African-American Jurors Were Purged from the Panel in Violation of Batson v. Kentucky.
In his fifth assignment of error, defendant avers that the trial court allowed the State to purge black jurors from the panel in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Defendant complains that the state used five out of 10 strikes to remove black jurors, resulting in a jury with the racial make-up of eight white jurors, four black jurors, and one white alternate.
In Batson, the Supreme Court held that an equal protection violation occurs if a party exercises a peremptory challenge to exclude a prospective juror on the basis of that person's race. See also La.C.Cr.P. art. 795. If the defendant makes a prima facie showing of discriminatory strikes, the burden shifts to the state to offer racially-neutral explanations for the challenged members. The neutral explanation must be one which is clear, reasonable, specific, legitimate and related to the particular case at bar. State v. Collier, 553 So.2d 815, 820 (La. 1989). A reviewing court owes the district judge's evaluations of discriminatory intent great deference and should not reverse them unless they are clearly erroneous. Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995) (per curiam) (citations omitted) (citing Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 364, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1868-69, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991)).
As noted in Footnote 9 infra, the Batson analysis is a three-part framework to be employed in evaluating an equal protection challenge to a prosecutor's use of a peremptory strike. However, the Batson Court declined "to formulate particular procedures" to prove discriminatory purpose and left the lower courts to determine the quantum of proof necessary for a defendant to establish a prima facie case. In State v. Green, 94-0887 (La. 5/22/95), 655 So.2d 272, this Court held that the sole focus of the Batson inquiry is upon the intent of the prosecutor at the time he exercised his peremptory strikes and outlined several factors which could lead to the inference of discriminatory intent prohibited by Batson, which include, but are not limited to:
"a pattern of strikes by a prosecutor against members of a suspect class, statements or actions of the prosecutor which support an inference that the exercise of peremptory strikes was motivated by impermissible considerations, the composition of the venire and of the jury finally empaneled, and any other disparate impact upon the suspect class which is alleged to be the victim of purposeful discrimination." See State v. Collier, 553 So.2d 815 (La. 1989); State v. Thompson, 516 So.2d 349 (La. 1987), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 871, 109 S.Ct. 180, 102 L.Ed.2d 149 (1988), reh'g denied, 488 U.S. 976, 109 S.Ct. 517, 102 L.Ed.2d 551 (1988).
State v. Green, 655 So.2d at 287-88.
In the instant case, defendant presented a numerical analysis to demonstrate that a prima facie case of discrimination existed on the part of the prosecution. With regard to the four jurors at issue, defendant compared the number of African-Americans in the panel to the number of African-Americans that the State wished to strike and argued that the State used a disproportionate number of peremptory strikes on African-Amer
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