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State v. Golphin8/25/2000
overruled and denied." Following defendants' objections, the trial court stated:
I would just note for the record that I did not perceive -- since this has been raised, I did not perceive any conduct of the juror to be less than deferential to the Court. I think that the juror did demonstrate a consistent reticence to elaborate on questions, but all of his responses were appropriate to the specific questions asked. And probably that -- there was a substantial degree of clarity and thoughtfulness in the juror's responses.
And the Court will note for the record that it is primarily relying upon the defendant's prior record, specifically which it involved an interaction with a traffic law enforcement officer, and the potential empathy that might be engendered from a father who was a criminal defendant as the basis for the exercise of the peremptory challenge.
I would note further I am not relying upon the impact of the incident in the courtroom as providing a basis for this and frankly is not -- I do not consider it to be appropriate for even the exercise for a peremptory challenge.
The State in the instant case gave reasons for peremptorily challenging both Holder and Murray. Therefore, "`we need not address the question of whether defendant met [their] initial burden of showing discrimination[,] and [they] may proceed as if a prima facie case had been established.'" Bonnett, 348 N.C. at 434, 502 S.E.2d at 575 (quoting State v. Harden, 344 N.C. 542, 557, 476 S.E.2d 658, 665 (1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1147, 137 L. Ed. 2d 483 (1997)).
As to the second prong of Batson, the State provided race-neutral reasons for the peremptory challenges of both Holder and Murray. With regard to Holder, we perceive no inherent discriminatory intent in the State's explanation that Holder was young, within the age range of defendants, and had a sister who was also within the age range of defendants. See Bonnett, 348 N.C. at 433, 502 S.E.2d at 574-75. Defendants have failed to show the State's reasoning was pretextual. See Gaines, 345 N.C. at 668, 483 S.E.2d at 408. The State relied on previous questions by defense counsel to formulate what it believed to be the defense theory in this case and then proceeded to ask questions similar to those asked by defense counsel. There was no evidence of pretext, as the State sought to exclude Holder because she might be able to empathize with defendants because she and her sister were within the same age range as defendants. Therefore, the trial court did not err in concluding that the State's reasoning was race-neutral.
With regard to Murray, we perceive no inherent discriminatory intent in the State's explanation that Murray had been convicted of driving while impaired and that his father had a prior conviction for robbery for which he had served six years in the Department of Correction. See Bonnett, 348 N.C. at 433, 502 S.E.2d at 574-75. Defendants did not show the State's explanation to be pretextual. See Gaines, 345 N.C. at 668, 483 S.E.2d at 408. While defendants pointed to two other Caucasian prospective jurors who had criminal convictions and were accepted by the State, those other prospective jurors did not also have a parent who was convicted of robbery for which he or she was incarcerated. There is no evidence of pretext, as the State sought to exclude Murray because he might empathize with defendants because of his own experience with traffic law enforcement and his father's incarceration in the Department of Correction. Therefore, the trial court did not err in finding the State's reasoning to be race-neutral.
As the State provided race-neutral reasons for its peremptory challenges of Holder an
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