Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Batson Challenge

Mar 9, 2022

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 […]

Jul 29, 2020

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’ […]

Jan 29, 2020

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 […]

Oct 23, 2018

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 […]

Top Legal News

See All Top Legal News

Commentary

See All Commentary