Batson error leads to conviction reversal
The peremptory striking of a Black juror by a prosecutor who couldn’t provide the trial court with an acceptable race-neutral reason for the dismissal constituted a substantive violation of the defendant’s constitutional right to equal protection, a divided North Carolina Supreme Court has ruled. In the high court’s Feb. 11 order, Justice Robin Hudson wrote […]
No Batson challenge without a preserved record
A Columbus County man convicted of murder didn’t provide enough detail in his appeal to prove that prosecutors wrongly excused African-American from his jury, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled, affirming a ruling from earlier this year after the state’s Supreme Court remanded the case in light of two recent decisions regarding prosecutors’ […]
Lack of details in record derails Batson challenge
A man who claims that Columbus County prosecutors wrongfully excluded black potential jurors from the jury that convicted him of first-degree murder couldn’t bring enough evidence to convince the North Carolina Court of Appeals that the exclusions were improper because several key details about the trial were missing from the record on appeal, a […]
Criminal Practice – Batson Challenge – Jurors’ Race – ‘Clearly Discernable’
Where the record demonstrates that it was clearly discernable to the trial court and to counsel that five of the 21 prospective jurors questioned on voir dire were African-American, and that two of those prospective jurors were peremptorily excused by the state, the trial court was not required to make further inquiry into the prospective […]
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